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No More Windows XP.

From the 30th June 2008, Microsoft no longer officially sells Windows XP on new computers. Since then, they have given Windows XP an extra lifeline - but time is running out if you want to purchase another copy.

What does this mean to you, and what are your options when Windows XP is no longer available?

XP was first released some seven years ago, at the end of 2001. Microsoft released Windows Vista two years ago, back in November 2006. These dates often come as a surprise to people, as Vista is still perceived as being ‘brand new’ – surely they can’t have ironed out all the bugs yet?

So – if Windows XP is no longer available, what does that mean in reality?

Using Windows XP.

Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft. There will still be the regular Windows Updates every ‘Microsoft Tuesday’. You will still be able to get help from Microsoft if you have a Windows XP problem, and all the computer people in the world won’t suddenly forget how to use Windows XP.

So, if you’ve got Windows XP on your PC, then there’s no need to worry. Ask yourself ‘Does my PC do everything that I need it to?’ – if the answer is ‘Yes’, then there’s no need to upgrade. Keep on using Windows XP, and focus on the important parts of your business.

Buying a new PC.

But – if you’ve asked yourself ‘Does my PC do everything I need it to’ and the answer was ‘No’, then you need to think about buying a new PC. Before you do though, it’s worth exploring the upgrade options on your current PC. Often, upgrading your old PC will be a false economy as you can buy a new one for £300/£400 – but it’s worth taking the time to check.

If you do need a new PC, then there’s a good chance it’ll come with Windows Vista on it. If you decide to leave it on Windows Vista, then it will happily sit alongside Windows XP on the same network – you can upgrade your PCs one at a time if you wish.

There are a few exceptions – low-powered ‘netbooks’ will continue to be sold with Windows XP for some time yet. These are very small laptops (typically a 30%-50% smaller than a normal laptop) with a very low retail price (typically £200-£250). Microsoft will continue to supply Windows XP for these machines so that they can stave off the competition from Linux at the low end of the market.

The other exception is that, through until 31st January 2009, Computer Manufacturers have been taking advantage of a Licensing Loophole that enables them to sell Windows Vista PCs with a ‘Windows XP Downgrade’ CD in the box. This means that you can remove Vista and have XP on your PC if you choose. This loophole should be closed from the 31st January 2009, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft extend the deadline on this loophole and continue to allow the major manufacturers to supply Windows XP downgrade CDs.

If you’ve got a Volume License for Windows XP. No problem. You can continue to use Windows XP, and if you need to buy a new PC then, when you get it out of the box, give it to IT Support and ask them to set it up with Windows XP. (Make sure you have the right number of licenses – you don’t want a visit from FAST – the Federation Against Software Theft).

Windows Vista.

The final alternative is, dare we say it, to use Windows Vista!

We hear people say that they wouldn’t dream of using Vista until it was a year old (well that time came and went back in November last year). Others talk about waiting until Service Pack 1 is released on Vista – well that’s been out since March now. We’ve also heard lots of people say ‘But Vista is no good – there’s been so many problems’ – which, from our experience, is a complete myth.

We’ve been using Windows Vista at projectfive for the last 2.5 years now (since before it was released) and it works really well. Some of the old HP printers didn’t work initially, as the new drivers needed to be written. These problems were all solved before the start of 2007. Since then, it’s been stable (I tend to reboot my laptop once every fortnight, and I rarely get any problems). You do need to have more memory in your PC (at least 2GB) – but that’s so cheap these days. I upgraded my laptop from 1GB to 4GB of memory and it cost less than I paid for the 512MB upgrade on my last laptop.

We have a few customers who are self-confessed computer luddites. They’ve made the switch to Windows Vista, and it has not resulted in any problems for them – they’ve been able to use Vista quite easily.

And, as Microsoft have pointed out, Windows Vista is the fastest selling Operating System in history. So, you have to ask yourself, “can it really be all bad?”.

Office 2007

We do hear comments that Word and Excel are different. That may be true, but that’s ‘Office 2007 versus Office 2003’ – which is a whole different set of questions to ‘Vista versus XP’. It’s something I will come back to in the next TechByte newsletter.

I hope the information here makes sense, and is useful to you. If you have any questions or want me to clarify anything, then please get in touch.

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