The world was very different 25 years ago. We ushered in the new millennium wearing low-slung denim, watching The Lord of the Rings, and listening to MP3s on iPods.

This was also a time when even the launch of a new operating system was as exciting as GTA 6, and with Windows XP, Microsoft shed its staid roots and created something aimed at everyone rather than just business users.

I was intrigued to see how Windows XP would hold up today. Windows 11 has become so eager to please and overstuffed with AI bells and whistles that it’s lost its purity. I’m not the only Windows user who feels this way: Microsoft is currently attempting a massive course-correction to get users back on track with Windows 11, bug hunting big issues with important things like File Explorer and even booting the damn thing, while scaling back ill-thought-through and invasive agentic AI additions such as Recall and Copilot.

Until Microsoft gives us an operating system that doesn’t strip-mine us for data, I’m voting with my feet. I’m going to try using Windows XP for a week to return to a bygone era of computing. This is either going to be a pleasant trip down memory lane or the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. No prizes for guessing.

Monday: Installing XP

Installing Windows XP directly on modern hardware is possible, but requires heavy slipstreaming and patching. The easiest way to run Windows XP is via a virtual machine, and UTM is designed to do just that on macOS computers.

Yes, I could have done this on a Windows device, but running it on a Mac increases security because if a virus or malware makes the jump from the virtual machine to the full operating system, it won’t be able to cause much damage.

This is a good time to mention that if you do want to run Windows XP in any way, shape, or form, it hasn’t been updated for over 10 years now, leaving it as vulnerable as a puppy in the center of the sun. So be careful.

The next step is to install a Windows XP ISO. I was hit by a blast of nostalgia as I remembered how exciting it was the first time I installed Windows XP, and I think Microsoft was acutely aware that these first steps had to be a tantalizing appetiser, so it made everything as good-looking and easy as possible.

After you’ve entered the CD key (remember those!?), installation takes a good half an hour, then Windows XP announces its presence with that classic start-up sound. That sunlit Bliss wallpaper popped up, and something stirred deep within me.

With Windows XP, Microsoft genuinely created something different. It was dubbed the Fisher-Price OS for a reason: it was tactile, chunky, and colorful. Childish as it might have been, it was never boring.

Tuesday: Updating Windows XP

One thing my rose-tinted glasses had blocked out was how many updates you need to install to get Windows XP up and running. Thankfully, Legacy Update, a fan-created program, installs all the necessary updates.

It perfectly replicates the Windows update process, presenting the updates in Internet Explorer (the first time Microsoft had made it this easy), and taking hours. Once XP updated, Microsoft realised my copy didn’t pass genuine Windows validation. Bye-bye, Bliss. Hello, dark wallpaper, my old friend.

Wednesday: How did we live without search?

With Windows updated, I had a poke around in XP. It’s agonisingly slow, and I’m not sure if this is the way it was, or if it’s because I’m emulating an operating system on a completely different operating system.

But one of the biggest realisations I had about Windows XP is that search really wasn’t part of the OS's fabric in 2001. Today, it’s second nature to hit the Windows key and type the first few letters of the program or file you want to open.

In Windows XP, opening files is totally mouse-based, and you need to know what you’re looking for. I’m pretty sure Microsoft put more effort into the little animated dog than it did into the search itself. It is such a minor thing, but it brought home how essential search is to making the user interface of an OS feel completely seamless.

Thursday: Productivity

After a good ol’ five-hour Pinball session, I decided to try and get something done, and that requires internet. Windows XP came pre-packaged with Internet Explorer 6, and yes, it still sucks, but only because it’s so old and fragile that pretty much all modern websites cause it to instantaneously collapse.

There are exceptions: FrogFind is a lo-fi search engine designed specifically for vintage computers that strips back the code and images of modern sites to raw HTML. If you have a fetish for royal blue Times New Roman text, you’re going to have a great time.

The alternative is Supermium, which, on paper, is a genuinely impressive feat. Built specifically for retro computing, Supermium brings a Chromium experience to deprecated operating systems. When it works. In my case, it didn’t, and I couldn’t even type my Google username without it crashing.

Weirdly, Windows XP still insisted on sending a crash report to Microsoft. Either Microsoft’s Windows XP crash servers are still running 25 years later, or the whole thing was a big lie.

The internet was not going to happen, so I went down the Microsoft Office route for work instead. After an hour-long installation, Office refused to accept my product key for no apparent reason and kept restarting itself. Clippy still turned up, though. Clippy is still really annoying.

Friday: Entertainment

With any hope of getting work done completely out of the window (ahem), I decided to kick back for some entertainment. Internet streaming is a total non-starter. YouTube tried to load, but didn’t get beyond gray thumbnails.

Thankfully, Winamp is still a thing, and, in keeping with the times, I raided my 2001-era collection of one MP3 for a blast of nostalgic tunes, and just watched those cool visualizations for about five minutes and remembered that this is all we had before Netflix.

I also managed to get Half-Life to run in 640x480 software mode, but I got stuck on the train and couldn’t look anywhere but the ceiling. Which is something that has frequently happened to me in real life as well.

In conclusion

I hit shut down one last time and vowed never to return to Windows XP. This was a nostalgic trip that rapidly turned into a nightmare.

I could have persevered, but I value my sanity too much. Windows XP is slow, clunky, and just plain annoying in ways I’d completely forgotten. I ran back into the loving arms of Windows 11 and welcomed its probing, AI-powered fingers.

• A YouTuber tested six different versions of Windows for speed
• That included Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8.1, 10 and 11
• While the results are skewed due to the hardware used for testing – and other elements – the results are still worth considering

Windows 11's performance does not come off at all well in a new comparison test that pits six different versions of Microsoft's desktop OS against each other – although it doesn't do so in a very fair way.

Tom's Hardware noticed the suite of tests run by YouTuber TrigrZolt (see the clip below), and the basic premise is quite flawed – and I'll come back to why later (although it's rather illuminating to compare Windows 11 to 10 in some respects, and I'll return to that point, too).

At any rate, first of all, let's look at the tests themselves, which were carried out on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11 (using the latest, or final, versions in all cases, as you'd expect).

They were run on the same model of laptop, with a bank of six old Lenovo ThinkPad X220 notebooks being used, and this is the major problem with this particular round of testing, as the YouTuber acknowledges (saying this testing is more about 'historic' perspective rather than practicality).

This laptop has an Intel Core i5-2520M CPU and a 256GB hard disk (not an SSD), with 8GB of RAM, and the notebook isn't officially compatible with Windows 11 (but can still be fudged to run the OS, of course).

As noted at the outset, Windows 11 performs pretty badly across most of the tests thrown at these laptops, which are run simultaneously across the different notebooks – you can see some tests, like bootup speed, being performed in real time, while others, like the battery-life test, are sped up.

Speaking of bootup, this is one metric where Windows 11 comes dead last, and even when the desktop does finally appear, the taskbar is notably missing (as it's still loading in). Windows 8.1 is actually the fastest OS to boot.

Windows 11 is also in last place when it comes to the memory that these operating systems consume, due to its larger complement of background processes. The same is true of the battery test, where the Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 11 died first. (Windows XP was victorious here, although the difference was minor, just a couple of minutes – all the OSes lasted for just over an hour).

In the video-editing test (using OpenShot), Windows 11 came last, too (although the caveat here is that Windows XP and Vista couldn't run this editor). When testing app opening speeds, TrigrZolt found that Windows 11 again came last for firing up Paint (which was notably slower than all other Windows versions), and also File Explorer (that's notoriously sluggish with Windows 11).

Windows 11 did better in some tests, such as storage (the drive space that the operating system consumes, including its default apps), where Microsoft's newest OS ranked fourth (Windows XP wins here, which isn't surprising as it's so lean). Also, in one of the web-page loading tests, Windows 11 came third (but was last in the other one, loading Google's search page).

Windows 11 was nippy in the file transfer test (copying a large ZIP file from a USB stick) as well, finishing second here (it was only a fraction slower than Windows 10 – in fact, it was pretty much a dead heat).

Check out the full range of tests in the video below if you want to see for yourself, before I dive into my analysis.

Analysis: bleak, yet unfair – but Microsoft should still take note

A bleak picture is painted of the general performance prowess of Windows 11 across many fronts here, but as I've mentioned there are hefty caveats. The most obvious sticking point here is that it's not fair to use a laptop that doesn't meet the minimum hardware requirements for an OS, which is the case for this Lenovo notebook and Windows 11.

Those requirements are there for a reason, whether or not you believe Microsoft was right in pushing steeper specs for Windows 11. A PC needs to meet this minimum spec to provide a responsive and reasonable enough experience with Windows 11, and if it doesn't, you can't then complain: 'Hey, look how slow all this runs'. Because Microsoft already told you it'll be a subpar experience with those system requirements.

Some of the app benchmark choices also skew things against Windows 11, such as Paint, which is a far heftier app in the modern OS than it used to be (in other words, a particularly beefed-up default app was chosen here). As does the use of a hard drive, which is ancient tech, really, for a primary system drive these days – any contemporary PC has an SSD.

In short, the design of this suite of tests shows off the worst of Windows 11 in many respects, and the best of a much leaner OS from way back in the day like Windows XP. As Tom's Hardware points out, a better test would be to compare these operating systems running on hardware relevant to their era (so Windows 11 is at least installed on a laptop that meets its minimum spec); although arranging and balancing that alternative test wouldn't be easy, of course.

Furthermore, this testing isn't without merit. It does point out relative shortcomings, such as the slow loading of Paint and File Explorer in Windows 11, or other performance hiccups, and how Windows 10 does better in many ways. That said, a lot of those pain points are to do with Microsoft's choices to beef up Windows 11 and its apps, which again, must be taken into consideration – Microsoft's newest OS does a lot more than the older versions in terms of features and functionality.

Also, the comments on this YouTube video should prove valuable guidance for Microsoft, should the company choose to peruse them. Accusations of Windows 11 being bloated, amongst complaints about telemetry data and background monitoring ('spying' is the term used), are repeated themes.

And there's definitely room for improvement with Windows 11's general performance on the desktop – particularly in the case of File Explorer, which has been a longstanding beef with Microsoft, not to mention the company overly focusing on AI in more recent times at the expense of the OS fundamentals.

• Microsoft is prepping Windows XP Crocs, dubbed the '50th Anniversary Exclusive'
• It'll be the first version of Windows to take this step, if true
• The Crocs come with six Jibbitz and a carrying tote

Yes, Microsoft is still celebrating its 50th anniversary, and while the company has done a lot of looking back, it’s also looking forward. Err, at least taking a step forward.

Sure, we’ve seen some iconic Windows ugly sweaters, including one with Minesweeper and one with Clippy, but Windows XP is going where no other version of Windows has ever gone before – to Crocs.

TechRadar's confirmed with the tech giant that the Microsoft 50th Exclusive Crocs – aka the Windows XP Crocs – are official, and got five images of the shoes.

According to a report from The Verge, Windows XP Crocs are currently available for internal order by Microsoft employees – priced at $80 – with the story noting that the employees “get first dibs” ahead of a “worldwide launch.”

We’ve seen other collaborations from the Croc brand, with plenty of Disney properties included – I mean, kachow, Lightning McQueen Crocs that light up – along with fashion houses, and even McDonald's. The Windows XP Crocs, though, take the iconic green hills and blue skies wallpaper to the shoe form.

And I know what you’re thinking, but the images of the Windows XP Crocs do indeed confirm the existence of a Clippy Jibbitz (aka what Crocs calls their shoe charms). The Windows XP Crocs will come with an iconic helper as well as a pointer, the MSN butterfly, a classic Internet Explorer logo, the recycling bin, and a folder. That comes to a whopping six Jibbitz in total.

You also get a drawstring tote that's inspired by the classic, now iconic, Windows XP wallpaper. Microsoft did confirm the existence of the Crocs to us and shared these images, but didn't share anything more on pricing or availability.

At a reported price tag of $80, the Windows XP Crocs aren’t cheap, but if you’re a Microsoft collector or someone who’s also opted to get the previous ugly holiday sweaters, they might be the perfect shoe to add to your collection. Of course, I think many would be happy if Microsoft goes the route of other retro, nostalgia-fueled drops – it could be a fresh skin for Windows or even another wallpaper drop, and that would still be a great way to honor the 50th.

You might recall that Microsoft dropped a limited 50th anniversary edition of the Surface Laptop, which looked pretty snazzy. It’s also a more subtle way to celebrate 50 years of Microsoft than, say, blue and green Crocs.

Stick with TechRadar as once we learn more about pricing and how to get a pair of the Microsoft 50th Exclusive Crocs, we'll be sure to update this post.

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Microsoft has revealed its ugly sweater for this year’s holiday season - and it’s going to be a real crowd-pleaser for fans of Windows XP.

And there are plenty of folks who regard this operating system as one of the best versions of Windows ever – after all, it’s the operating system that refused to die – so it turns out there’s been quite some demand for the sweater.

The cotton garment (well, 55% cotton, 45% acrylic) shows a stylized version of the Bliss (default) wallpaper for Windows XP, and it’s labeled as ‘Merry Blissmas’ in the product listing.

The design features the iconic fluffy clouds in a blue sky, with a green landscape underneath, and the addition of an oversized mouse cursor (you wouldn’t want anyone to miss the point of the sweater, now, would you?).

It’s yours via the Xbox Gear Shop for $70 (£56 in the UK, and around AU$105).

The sweater can be shipped internationally, across the globe, but if you want the bad news, it’s already sold out in the most common sizes.

Small, medium, large, and extra-large have all gone, with only the 2XL and 3XL sizes remaining. You can still request a notification for one of the sizes that’s currently out of stock, mind, so Microsoft will let you know when (or if) more inventory comes in.

Microsoft advises: “Machine wash cold, tumble dry low, and never take off.”

As an added bonus, some of the money goes to charity - namely The Nature Conservancy, which aims to protect our environment and combat climate change.

Analysis: Do sweat it

Microsoft’s holiday sweaters have become pretty famous at this point. In the past we’ve had the likes of Clippy last year (maybe a retired Copilot could be on a future sweater, though Microsoft better hope not, with the amount of eggs it has in that particular basket), and a Windows 95 sweater.

Indeed, there was a Windows XP sweater back in 2019 (which was also available in 2020, when Microsoft resurrected some past designs), covered with the ‘XP’ logo, but this take is a bit more subtle - aside from the stupidly supersized mouse pointer, anyway.

If there’s one point of criticism here, it’s that Microsoft should be making more of these garments. They’re clearly popular sweaters, and to be sold out of most sizes already is obviously going to be disappointing for those keen to get a slice of ‘bliss’ for the festive period.

We’re still waiting for the BSoD, frankly (that's the 'Blue Sweater of Death').

Psst! Don't tell anyone, but we got our hands on one of these rare Windows Ugly Sweaters. We kind of love it.

Via Tom’s Hardware

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With many still upgrading to Windows 11 alongside new rumors surfacing about its next major upgrade, Windows 12, sometimes you want to go back to a simpler time.

It could be argued that Windows XP is Microsoft’s only operating system that remains beloved by many users ever since its release in October 2001. From its colorful interface to the ease of use of plugging in devices and playing games, it’s still being supported by some enterprising tech-heads with custom web browsers and apps to help it run well even in 2023.

While there are still some limits that could keep you from using it full-time in the modern day, there’s still an argument for using it these days.

Away from our gaming PCs with multi-core CPUs, multi-terabyte SSDs, and 8K-capable graphics cards, some just want a straightforward operating system to do work on, sequestered away from the distractions of social media and pop-up notifications that Windows 11 and others provide.

With this in mind, this is how I got Windows XP to run in 2023 - and why I think I’ll be using it for certain jobs when needed going forward.

Installing Windows XP

If you wanted the genuine experience, you could create a partition on your hard drive, and install Windows XP that way. But there are some easier methods in 2023 to get Windows XP working - one which is easier than the other.

Buying an old PC or Laptop

Buying a machine second-hand will be a great way, but you’ll be limited by the hardware power of that year as well. For example, if you wanted to play most of the best PC games, you'd be out of luck. The iconic pinball game that comes with Windows XP though, or retro games like Sonic CD or the original Half-Life, should at least be fine.

Virtualization

Virtualization will be the easiest way, as it contains Windows XP within an app on an existing system. While it was previously thought as an impossible scenario on an Apple silicon Mac, UTM indeed makes this possible by emulating a PC from 1996, and, thanks to the gallery it offers, you only have to download a template, look for a Windows XP image that may be buried deep within a pile of your old CDs, and you’re good to go.

Using VMWare on a Windows 11 PC will also allow you to run Windows XP within an app in the same way, and if it’s set up correctly, you can drag and drop files inside the VM to install apps and games in a few steps.

Regardless of which method you choose, you’ll eventually be greeted with the ‘Welcome’ splash screen and the iconic ‘Bliss’ wallpaper with its blue sky and green fields. Ah, smells like 2001.

Using Windows XP

Whichever method you opt for, as soon as you’re at the Windows XP desktop, you’ll be faced with a slight hiccup - connecting to the internet.

As I was using UTM in macOS, it was a simple matter of selecting ‘Bridge’ in the Network settings, which used my Mac’s WiFi to enable this for the VM.

I decided to use Windows XP for work - typing up an article and using email to send it to my work email.

Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft’s web browser that was fully deprecated for its Edge browser back in 2022, was able to work with Google and not much else. Going to TechRadar’s homepage resulted in a ’Page Cannot be Displayed’ message, so I had to download an older version of Firefox - which worked, giving me access to the internet again.

While this VM had 4GB memory, Windows XP simply can’t handle the modern web. Loading text was fine, but images, different layouts, and even ads slowed everything down, and the web browser crashed multiple times throughout loading some sites.

Oddly enough, I didn’t mind this, as it kept me from procrastinating from continuing the task at hand.

But the games Windows XP is loaded with helped to scratch that itch. Loading up Pinball and Minesweeper was a treat, and by logging into my GOG account, I could play games like Shadows of the Empire and Tomb Raider III with ease, as they had support for Windows XP around the time these games were released.

Loading up Windows Media Player 8 was a nostalgic moment, and while I’m still wanting to see Microsoft turn it into an Apple Music competitor, I can see why even for 2001 it was showing its age. No Store, no easy way of managing music with MP3 players, and a bizarre setup to play videos by downloading and accepting licenses for types of video made this a miserable experience. However, downloading VLC Player solved this issue, as it did for me back in 2001.

The interface and the color schemes still look great in 2023 - everything operates as intended, and you get the feeling that the redesign of Explorer in Windows 11 Moment 2 was inspired by Windows XP, from its look to the sidebar.

Using Office XP, a version of Microsoft Office that launched in May 2001, was surprisingly easy to use. This was before the Ribbon interface of Office 2003, and it was easy and familiar to use. I was able to type up this very feature, and using Firefox, I tried to send an email and it failed.

So I signed up to Google, loaded up Google Docs, copied it there, and I was able to carry this on with my Mac.

Should you use it?

Up to a point, Windows XP is something to use to help you focus in a completely different way, instead of looking at apps that can block out others to help you do work, or even when using Windows 11’s Focus feature that tries to solve this issue.

Think of the Phantom Zone from Superman: The Movie, or if you’re an anime fan, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z, where the characters can train for an entire year within one day. These both contain the characters inside a prison, where time and space don’t matter, and they’re left to do what they can to either get out of these areas, or bide their time once they’re allowed to leave.

The same can be said for using Windows XP in 2023. It’s a moment frozen in time when you start using this again, regardless of whether it’s in a virtualization app like UTM, using an older PC, or loading it up within a separate partition.

And it’s a great way of doing work, which is why I recommend using Windows XP in 2023 and beyond. You can write up reports or even use Paint to roughly draw something that you need to carry on with Adobe Photoshop using your modern PC on Windows 11. I found myself putting UTM into my macOS Dock so I can load up Windows XP whenever I need some pressing work to complete.

It’s a time machine and a great one at that. If you’re struggling to focus, then stepping into Windows XP for a couple of hours would be a great way of fixing that.

The activation algorithm for Windows XP has been cracked, so those stuck not being able to get the ancient operating system working can now do so – and yes, there are folks who still use this OS.

Granted, it’s a seriously slim – vanishingly so – niche of Windows users, and we’ll come back to that. For most of us, though, this is just a curiosity.

As The Register reports, the encryption algorithm for Windows XP product activation has been cracked and reimplemented, with the details provided via a tinyapps blog post.

This means anyone can now generate a valid product key to install and activate Windows XP offline.

Microsoft turned off the servers required to activate Windows XP long ago, so you can’t use a genuine old product key to activate the OS. Well, not online anyway, though from what we can see on Reddit, Microsoft still facilitated a product activation on the phone back in 2020 – and The Register reckons this way still works.

Analysis: Desperate times, desperate measures…

So, if you don’t want to get on the phone and try to persuade Microsoft to activate your Windows XP when you have a genuine product key that can’t be validated online anymore, you can simply do-it-yourself at home (or in the office) with no fuss.

Why would you ever want to use Windows XP, though? Yes, it was a much-loved operating system without a doubt, for many reasons – mainly that it was such a big step forward for performance, and the quality of the interface, over its predecessor – but it’s obviously ridiculously outdated at this point in time.

However, some people must remain on Windows XP due to legacy software or hardware that won’t work with any more modern Microsoft operating system. These are most likely businesses, who might, say, have eye-wateringly expensive machines that only work with software that runs on XP and hasn’t been updated in forever.

In those cases, this crack could prove very useful, but clearly, anyone running Windows XP is exposing themselves to a whole lot of potential pain in terms of the vulnerabilities present in the OS. Which is why if you are in this boat, whatever you do, keep that Windows XP installation offline for obvious reasons.

Are you now wondering how many Windows XP users are still out there? According to the latest from analytics firm Statcounter, XP amounts to a 0.35% userbase out of all Windows versions (not all that far behind Windows 8, Microsoft’s most recently defunct OS which is on 1.28% as of April 2023).

Cracking rusty old Microsoft operating systems appears to be quite the trend at the moment. You may recall that Windows 95’s (relatively flimsy) activation was recently hacked, with a twist – ChatGPT was fooled into generating keys that worked with the OS (in a small number of cases).

Though the logo for the much beloved Windows XP is now considered iconic, it could have ended up looking a lot differently.

Windows XP introduced the 3D spin on the classic OS logo back in 2001, but according to Creative agency Frog Design and reported on by CreativeBloq, that spin could have easily been a complete revitalization of the logo. Creative director Casey Potter stated that Microsoft came to them wanting an outside perspective for its next OS’s logo.

"The Windows mark needed to maintain the brand equity it had accrued in its long history while expressing the evolution towards a more flexible, user-friendly brand." As a result, logo makers Frog Design came up with 50 different possibilities for the tech giant, which ran the gambit between “simple to radical alterations.”

You can see the logo designs below, and it's really fascinating seeing how unique some of these versions are.

The hidden dangers of Windows XP

It’s no secret that Windows XP, over two decades after its initial release, is still one of the most popular of Microsoft’s operating systems. Just as recently as 2021, Lansweeper found that out of 50 million devices running a Windows OS, 3% were running Windows XP which is about 1.5m. 

And this is in spite of the fact that Microsoft stopped supporting XP in early April 2014. And though it’s nice to take a fond look at the OS through new information like this, it’s also vital to recall that it’s time to let go of XP for good.

And while it’s understandable that people are reluctant to let go of an OS that’s familiar, running XP in this day and age is a huge cybersecurity risk as it’s out-of-date and unprotected from the latest in cyberattacks. And it’s not just personal and work PCs at risk either, as many of these devices still running the OS are in critical infrastructure deployments.

In 2014, it was estimated that 95% of global ATMs still used Windows XP, and there’s a significant number of them that still run it to this day. There have been notable attacks in the past years too, from the notorious WannaCry ransomware to the attack on the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia.

Nostalgia is nice, but it’s best contained to looking back at early designs. Otherwise, it’s time to move on and embrace the present.

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A significant proportion (43 percent) of all business devices are still unable to upgrade to Windows 11 because of hardware requirements imposed by Microsoft, according to new research published by IT management company Lansweeper.

TechRadar Pro previously reported in March 2022 that many millions of business PCs were ineligible to upgrade to Windows 11, in part due to their processors lacking Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 compatibility, a feature Windows 11 requires.

Lansweeper claims that the situation has eased since we covered its last report, with the percentage of devices clearing the CPU and TPM requirements rising by 12%. At this level of growth, all devices should be compatible with Windows 11 by 2026.

Windows 11 in the workplace

However, Lansweeper still found that only 57% of the devices tested had CPUs that met Microsoft’s requirements. More than a third (35%) of workstations tested were incompatible with TPM or had it disabled, while virtual machines fared worse - with only 1% supporting or having TPM enabled.

Furthermore, the growth level of Windows-11 compatible devices that Lansweeper has seen still falls short of the end-of-life deadline for Windows 10: October 14, 2025. On this date, Windows 10 will stop receiving vital security and feature updates. 

This is important, as 82% of all Windows devices are still running Windows 10. A steady growth rate for compatible devices isn’t guaranteed, and any devices still running the previous iteration of the operating system will become increasingly vulnerable to malware and ransomware attacks.

This is a large part of why a great deal of cyberattacks target healthcare and educational institutions. Organizations neglect to update operating systems, usually to preserve a software or database solution that “just works”, and so become easy targets for malicious threat actors who value their sensitive personal data.

Only 3% of all Windows users currently use Windows 11. By comparison, 1% of users are still using the 21-year-old Windows XP, and so it’s fair to say that businesses are still unaware as to why they ought to invest in new hardware.

As much as it may seem counterproductive, especially in a recession, organizations are advised to update the hardware powering their business for long-term confidence in their security posture, and look to save money in other areas, such as their software solutions.

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Way back in 2004, I was on a paper round with the aim to save up enough for a gaming PC in order to play Half-Life 2. I'd read so much about the game at the time, and it was the first game I actually pre-ordered via Valve's newly-released online store: Steam.

Building my own PC to play that masterpiece is a memory I'll always cherish. This was also the age of Windows XP, and there was one theme that exclusively came with the Media Center version of Windows XP called 'Royale', which was what I installed on my gaming PC. I loved the darker look of it, and ever since I've been wanting to use it again without having to find complicated, hacky ways to implement it.

However, thanks to an app called RetroBar, I was able to transform my Windows 11 gaming PC's taskbar into the 'Royale' theme from XP instantly.

But I didn't stop there - I went another step further in wanting to make sure that my current gaming PC looked even more like my very first PC from 2004.

Future Shock

While there are apps that can completely change the look of your Windows 11 PC, sometimes you just want a quick tool that can change certain aspects of your themes without doing too much work to make sure there are no issues down the line for your PC.

This is where RetroBar came in; once you've installed it and an additional Visual Basic tool to help make it run, you only need to right-click on the Taskbar and decide which theme you want to display on your PC.

I can change between Windows 98, or one of the many colors that Windows XP offered, from 'Olive Green' to 'Blue', and 'Royale Noir'. All of it is straightforward, and it took me less than five minutes to sort.

However, I felt as though my desktop was missing something, so I went on the hunt for the iconic Windows XP wallpaper that would look good on my 4K monitor.

Thanks to a Redditor, who managed to remake the 'Bliss' wallpaper of Windows XP into 4K, I've got a crystal-clear view of the blue sky and iconic hills on my gaming PC once more.

I could have finished this redesign for my desktop by looking at changing some icons to reflect Windows XP as well. However, I've come to realize that it's rare that we use those icons on our desktop in modern times. Gone are the days of having 'My Computer' sitting on your desktop - nowadays it's just the odd icon for our favorite games and tools.

In these modern times, it's all accessible through the Taskbar and Start Menu, so I've left that part alone. Otherwise, while my latest gaming PC can play Half-Life 2 like my first PC did in 2004, it can also play Half-Life: Alyx and Portal 2, other games from Valve that I regard as worth building a gaming PC for.

Thanks to the Windows XP-inspired Royale Theme, I'm able to wallow in nostalgia of a more simple era when I would be reading magazines and looking at demos to make me more hyped to visit City 17 for the very first time.

There are more PCs running Windows XP than systems which have adopted Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 operating system, a new report focusing on business PCs has claimed.

Granted, in both cases the percentages are very low, but findings from Lansweeper, an IT asset management company, show Windows XP was found to be on 1.71% of the PCs surveyed, compared to just 1.44% which have shifted to Windows 11.

That seems like a pathetically low figure for an operating system which was released some six months ago, but at least the percentage has ticked up a bit faster since the start of the year, given that Windows 11 market share was just 0.52% in January 2022, Lansweeper says.

Windows 11 vs Windows XP - really

The crux of the matter in many cases is that PCs don’t meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11. Lansweeper observes that 55% of devices are not compatible with Windows 11, and a major sticking point is TPM, with almost half of workstation TPMs (47%) failing to meet requirements (or the system’s TPM wasn’t enabled).

Indeed, both Windows 7 (on 4.7%) and Windows 8 (still being used by 1.99%) were more popular than Windows 11. As you might guess, Windows 10 was by far the most-used OS in the survey, being run on 80.3% of machines.

Analysis: Sluggish adoption is a wider theme for Windows 11

Windows 11 is not faring well in the business world, it would seem – and indeed that’s putting it mildly, going by these stats. However, this is just one report, and as is always the case with statistics, it’s not wise to put too much stock in just a single source.

There are problems with Windows 11 adoption, though, as we’ve seen more widely. Indeed, as Lansweeper points out, the major issue is that companies may have to look at buying entirely new hardware – in difficult economic times – to meet Windows 11’s system requirements, and in particular the stipulation for TPM 2.0 to ensure better security.

Furthermore, it’s fair to say that Windows 11 is not hugely different to Windows 10 in many ways, and Windows 10 remains supported until 2025 – so there’s no big rush to start planning an OS migration strategy when there’s still a good deal of road left in terms of full support and updates.

Windows 11 uptake hasn’t been that speedy in the broader consumer environment, too – albeit not nearly as dire as this latest report – and mainly for reasons around compatibility in a similar vein.

Figures from AdDuplex show a 19% market share for Windows 11, but that appears to have stalled of late, and gaming adoption on Steam is even slower at just under 17%. Tellingly, in the latter case, gamers moved to Windows 10 twice as fast as they’re doing with Windows 11.

Things are looking a little lackluster for Windows 11 all-round, then, and it feels like adoption will be a slow-burning affair going forward.

• Windows 11 isn’t a bad OS, by any means – we discuss its pros and cons here

Changing the desktop theme in Windows has been around ever since the days of Windows 98. In 2022, it’s easier than ever to install a full 4K theme for your PC that transforms your icons and windows, not just the color scheme. 

There are plenty of methods to install a Windows 10 or Windows 11 theme, such as from the Microsoft Store, or by using other applications that can change the color scheme to your windows and taskbar.

There are plenty of opportunities right now to change the look and feel of your PC into something tailored to you.

With this in mind, here’s how to install some themes to make your PC shine even more, and not just on the outside with your RGB.

How to install official themes

Before Windows 8, there really wasn’t an official method to install new themes, but with the introduction of the Microsoft Store, it was made much easier. 

Go to the themes section in the Microsoft Store. Browse the section and if you want to install one, just click on a theme, press ‘Get’ and it will install. Navigate to Settings > Personalization > Themes and it will show alongside the existing themes, ready to give your PC a change in looks.

However, as the store isn’t the greatest in displaying what a theme can look like across the whole PC, alongside its clunky user interface, it’s almost a needle in the haystack of finding one that you will like.

How to install unofficial themes

This is where third-party themes come in. An application called UltraUXThemePatcher needs to be downloaded first in order for third-party themes to be installed. It modifies certain files in Windows 10 that are responsible for modifying the user interface, but it does restore these back to normal if UltraUXThemePatcher is uninstalled.

Once installed, you can head over to DeviantArt or ThemePack and look for a theme that best suits you.

Once you’ve found a theme you like, drop them into ‘Windows\Resources\Themes’.

Restart your PC, then go to Settings > Personalization > Themes, and they will show up alongside the official variants, ready to take effect.

There’s also another application that we need to mention that can showcase your desktop even further.

 Wallpaper Engine

Wallpaper Engine features a plethora of animated backgrounds, where you can download even more, thanks to the Steam Workshop integration where many users have contributed their own designs. You can have it scheduled to feature a different wallpaper for each day if you wish, or certain times throughout the day.

You can customize the colors, the objects, the speed in which the animations play, and much more. It even works on multiple monitors, so you could have a wallpaper that has an animation that runs across all of your screens, making for a striking effect.

Our pick of the best Windows 10 themes

Simplify Orange Blue

The Simplify theme flattens the user interface but gives it a warm gradient that makes it looks like a modernized theme of Windows XP. Everything looks tidier and very clean when browsing File Explorer, while everything in this theme is optimized for 4K displays. The theme does cost $2.99 (about £2 / AUS$4), but you gain a very sophisticated theme with a deep color-scheme for your PC.

macOS 12

Want to have the appearance of Apple’s operating system without owning a Mac? Here’s the best of both worlds for you. This macOS theme transforms your entire Windows 10 theme into the latest macOS release, with icons, wallpapers, and even a dock where you can drag and drop application shortcuts into it, ready to go. It’s very easy to install while transforming your PC into an iMac.

Nemo Skin

Back in 2003, Microsoft was working on the Windows XP successor codenamed Longhorn, with concept art that showcased how it was going to redefine the user interface. While it didn’t work out, this theme looks as close as how that vision was, with hues of dark blue and green across the theme as a great contrast to give the user interface sophistication.

Papryos

Instead of one theme, you get five themes here, with each one showcasing bright, vibrant colors that look like a cross between Linux and the now depreciated Material user interface from Google’s Android.

XP Themes

The themes of Windows XP, now on Windows 10. Some of these were once exclusively available on certain versions of Windows XP, with the Royale theme being a particular nostalgic throwback to 2004.

The taskbar and the color scheme are the two important points here, easily mixed into the Windows 10 of today. Even in 2022 with the latest 20H2 update in Windows 10, the themes all work here, Royale especially looks fantastic with its almost fluorescent blue and green colors, while Zune brings a great mix of black and orange to the desktop. 

As they’re all optimized for displays up to 4K, all of these look very sharp for any monitor. While it does cost $11.99 (about £8.49 / AUS$15.49), it's a small price to pay for a complete, elegant makeover of your Windows 10 PC from 2001.

• Our guide to the best web browsers in 2022

Microsoft’s long-defunct Windows XP operating system (OS) is still alive and kicking, despite turning 20 years old this week, new data shows.

According to the latest figures from Statcounter, Windows XP is still used by 0.59% of Windows users, who make up 75.4% of the desktop market.

Rough estimates suggest there are now more than two billion laptops and computers in circulation worldwide, which would mean that nine million PCs continue to run the decades-old OS.

Windows XP fans

Although many people look fondly upon Windows XP, thanks to its iconic interface and performance improvements over Windows 2000, its continued popularity is likely to cause problems.

Windows XP officially reached end of life on April 14 2014, meaning Microsoft has not provided important technical and security updates for the OS for more than seven years now.

Safe in the knowledge that Microsoft will no longer deliver security patches, cybercriminals can dedicate resources to developing malware designed specifically to exploit older flaws. And given the significant pool of computers that still run the unsupported operating system, the potential scope of attacks remains significant.

The emergence of WannaCry ransomware in 2017, for example, forced Microsoft to make an exception and deliver a patch for Windows XP devices. But this was just a one-off.

The advice for users hoping to shield against potential Windows XP exploits is to update to either Windows 10 or 11, no matter how heart-rending it may be. It’s also advisable to protect devices with a modern antivirus solution, only download content from reputable sources and exercise care when opening unsolicited email attachments.

If you’re looking for a new piece of hardware, check out our list of the best business laptops and best mobile workstations.

Monday October 25th marks the 20th anniversary of Windows XP, the first operating system launched by Microsoft in the 21st century. Codenamed “Neptune” during development, Windows XP was originally just intended for the consumer market. However, an update to Windows 2000 for the business market was scrapped and the two projects merged. Windows XP was launched to great acclaim and received positive reviews for its performance and stability, a more intuitive user interface, improved hardware support, and its expanded multimedia capabilities. It was famed for its green start button and blue task bar.

Whilst Microsoft recently launched Windows 11 (codenamed “Sun Valley”) to much fanfare, several critical PCs still run on Windows XP. In fact, it is thought that 0.6% of the 1.3 billion Windows PCs worldwide still rely on the aging operating system. This is despite Microsoft ending mainstream support for Windows XP back in 2009 followed by extended support in 2014. That means 8 million PCs around the globe are currently out-of-date and unprotected to the latest breed of cyberattacks. 

Legacy critical infrastructure deployments

What makes it worse is that these unprotected Windows XP PCs are often in critical infrastructure deployments. For example, a significant number of ATMs still use versions of Windows XP. In fact, at the time of extended support ending in 2014 it was estimated that more than 95% of the three million ATMs in use worldwide were still running on Windows XP.

There are several high-profile examples of legacy systems being hacked since support ended. In 2017, the dangers of running unsupported out-of-date IT systems were illustrated when the notorious WannaCry ransomware tore through the NHS’s outdated systems in a matter of hours. The highly publicized attack caused £92m worth of damage and disrupted a third of all NHS trusts in England. Whilst Microsoft released a posthumous patch to address the vulnerability, it was too late. A year before, the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia’s Windows XP network was struck down with the QBot virus. The virus infiltrated major hospital systems, forcing staff to resort to fax or phone to communicate. It took the hospital over two weeks to contain the virus, which mutated up to six times a day.

The need to patch over the cracks

The stark reality is that when it comes to being hit with an attempted cyberattack it is not a question of if, but when. Four in ten businesses (39%) and a quarter of charities (26%) report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. It is particularly prevalent in medium sized businesses (65%), large businesses (64%) and high-income charities (51%). This has meant that the need to fully patch business critical systems has never been higher. 

Important patches to newly found security holes continue to be released at unerring regularity. Microsoft releases patches on the second Tuesday of each month, jam packed with security updates. In its most recent “Patch Tuesday” update, the company rolled out security patches to no fewer than 86 loopholes it found in operating systems much more technically advanced than XP. 

While antivirus and other endpoint security measures are an important line of defense, effectively applying software updates and patches removes many of the vulnerabilities that cybercriminals target today. However, in these days of remote working, applying such updates can sometimes be difficult. Luckily, help is at hand. By using a multi-platform patch management solution, IT admins can get complete visibility over the patch status of their systems and provide guidance to staff so that they know what to patch and how.

You can’t patch what isn’t there

Effective patching is a critical security precaution for businesses of all sizes. The benefits are numerous. It provides a more secure environment for your staff and helps protect your business from potential security breaches. But more than that, it allows the business to continue to innovate, avoid unnecessary fines and promotes system uptime which leads to happy customers. The last point is particularly important. We all saw the furor that the recent Facebook downtime caused, where businesses which use social media to connect with consumers were faced with irate customers and a significant financial hit.

However, the struggle for businesses is that you can’t patch what isn’t there. And in the eyes of Microsoft, Windows XP is no longer there. With every additional year after the end of extended support, the likelihood of security issues and incidents increases. Therefore, now is the time to say goodbye to Windows XP and move to a supported operating system. A vulnerable server could expose hundreds or thousands of passwords and be used to access and steal files from mapped drives. Unfortunately, 20 years on and businesses still use Windows XP in great numbers. Until they update, the industry must remember the left behind.

Ransomware hunters recently chanced upon a ransomware decryptor that supports the venerable Windows XP operating system.

Despite having its final release over a decade ago in 2008, Microsoft continued to support Windows XP for several more years, until it finally ceased this extended support in 2014. However it appears that many people still continue to use the defunct OS for everyday work, and since users continue to use Windows XP despite not having received security updates for several years, the OS is an easy target for threat actors. 

The newly-discovered Avaddon ransomware decryptor is created specifically to decrypt Windows XP devices, and is proof that threat actors have tools to support the OS.

• Check out our roundup of the best endpoint protection software
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• These are the best malware removal software on the market

Cost of support

However, supporting an old defunct OS isn’t as simple or straightforward as it may appear.

BleepingComputer talked to the CTO of anti-malware software developer, Fabian Wosar to understand the troubles that ransomware authors had to go through to ensure their decryptor works on Windows XP.

Wosar said that since the latest integrated development environments (IDE), such as Visual Studio 2019, no longer be used to compile software for Windows XP, the threat actors probably use an older version with an older compiler to package the app for Windows XP.

This will also limit the crypto libraries they can use since the decryptors assembled with older compilers won’t be able to unlock them. 

In fact, the process, and cost in terms of labour and time, of supporting Windows XP is high enough to dissuade Wosar from supporting the OS with Emisoft’s decrypters.

• We've also highlighted the best antivirus solutions

Via: BleepingComputer

Millions of people are still using Windows XP and Windows 7 both at home and in the office, offering a hugely attractive sight to even newbie cybercriminals, a new report from Lansweeper claims.

Analyzing more than 50 million devices currently running Windows operating systems, Lansweeper found that 5% ran Windows 7 (approximately 2.5m), while 3% ran Windows XP (roughly 1.5m).

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP in early April 2014, and Windows 7 in early January 2020. That means that from those dates onward, any new flaws and vulnerabilities found will mostly remain unpatched. 

• We've built a list of the best business laptops available
• These are the best Windows 10 alternatives
• Here are the best Windows 10 VPN solutions  for the PC out there

Running an operating system with known vulnerabilities could result in data breaches which, in today’s climate, may mean gargantuan fines to affected businesses - although Microsoft has said it may issue patches to subsequently discovered vulnerabilities to specific companies - for a price.

Remote workers on the line

Things have gotten even worse since the pandemic, Lansweeper’s report further states, due to many employees staying home for work. Among those employees are many whose cybersecurity knowledge and skills are subpar, and being away from the relative safety of their corporate networks, as well as IT departments, could exacerbate the problem.

As an ecosystem, Windows nowadays powers more than a billion devices. Windows 10, the company’s latest operating system, alone powers a billion devices. Of the 50 million units Lansweeper analyzed, 5% (2.5m) still use Windows 8. 

The advice for users hoping to remain as secure as possible is to update to the latest Windows, Mac, or Linux OS and to protect their devices with a modern antivirus solution.

"The fact that people are still relying on systems more than a decade old is shocking,” says Roel Decneut, Chief Marketing Officer at Lansweeper. “A large number of these outdated PCs are predicted to be enterprise systems, which means it’s not just personal information that’s on the line.”

• Also check out everything you need for remote working

Thought about getting yourself a novelty holiday sweater? An unlikely contender has thrown its name into the humorous knitwear ring, with Microsoft now selling retro-themed clothing to support the charity Girls Who Code.

The Christmas holiday season is in full swing, and despite everything awful from this year, you can see glimpses of normality shining through. Starbucks is selling its seasonal drinks, someone in your neighborhood has enough lights on their home to land a plane on the street, and you can proudly make a fool of yourself by donning the kitschiest sweater you can find.

An announcement made on  December 3 that due to the initial stock selling out so quickly, a full reprint and restock is in progress. You can register your interest at the  Xbox gear website.

• Looking for a new laptop? Here's our guide for the best laptops in 2020
• Here's where you can find stock of the elusive Xbox series X
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Microsoft has actually produced the novelty knitwear previously, and was last seen giving away these sweaters to influencers back in 2018. This appears to be the first time that you can buy stock yourself, though, and both existing designs are listed alongside a new MS Paint version for 2020.

You'll need to act fast if you want to impress your in-laws with one though, as stock is extremely limited. All three are listed on sale for $60, with $20 from each sale going to support Girls Who Code, a charity committed to narrowing the gender gap in computing.

• Best gaming chair 2020: the best PC gaming chairs

Via MS Poweruser

An investigation into leaked source code for Microsoft’s Windows XP has surfaced a handful of unreleased and partially complete themes built early in the operating system’s development cycle.

One theme in particular - called Candy - caught the eye of The Verge, because it bears a striking resemblance to Apple’s Aqua UI for Mac computers.

The Mac-flavored theme is incomplete, but the Start Menu and navigation buttons are quite clearly an homage to Apple’s now iconic aesthetic, which was itself unveiled roughly 18 months prior to the release of XP.

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The theme is described as a “Whistler skin with eye candy” (“Whistler” being the codename for Windows XP) and is designated for “internal use only”.

It appears to have been used as a temporary theme during the development process, while Microsoft was working on the Windows XP theme engine that later allowed third-parties to overlay their own designs.

Windows XP source code

The Mac-like Windows XP theme was discovered after source code for the 19-year-old operating system was published to bulletin board website 4chan.

The 43GB data dump also included source code for Windows 2000 and multiple versions of Windows CE, MS DOS, Windows Embedded and Windows NT - plus a section dedicated to conspiracy videos aimed at Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

It has been suggested the source code leak might pose a security threat, especially given the surprising prevalence of Windows XP today (estimates suggest roughly 25 million PCs still run the OS).

According to the individual responsible for the leak, though, Windows XP source code has been circulating within hacking communities for years now, which suggests major new security vulnerabilities are unlikely to be uncovered.

However, this doesn’t rule out the discovery of further easter eggs like the Candy theme. It remains to be seen what else might be uncovered as the newly public files undergo further scrutiny.

• Here's our list of the best business computers around

The source code for Microsoft’s 19-year-old Windows XP operating system (and other versions) has been leaked online, reports suggest.

Published as a torrent file on bulletin board website 4chan, the 43GB data dump is said to have been compiled over the course of the last few months by the leaker.

The collection also includes source code for Windows 2000 and multiple versions of Windows CE, MS DOS, Windows Embedded and Windows NT - but all of which have a smaller modern install base than XP.

• Check out our list of the best mobile workstations on the market
• We've built a list of the best business laptops available
• Here's our list of the best workstations out there

The individual responsible for the leak also appears to bear Bill Gates a distinct grudge, dedicating a whole section of the torrent file to videos slandering the Microsoft founder.

The legitimacy of the leaked code has not yet been confirmed, but Microsoft has been made aware of the issue.

“We are investigating and will take appropriate action to help keep customers protected," a Microsoft spokesperson told TechRadar Pro.

Windows XP source code

Although support for Windows XP lapsed in 2014 - meaning the OS has not received security updates for a number of years - a surprising number of users remain loyal to the outdated operating system.

As of last month, 1.26% of all laptops and desktop computers worldwide were still running XP - a greater proportion than much younger Microsoft operating systems Windows 8 (0.57%) and Windows Vista (0.12%).

Estimates suggest there are now more than a billion computers in circulation worldwide which, if accurate, would mean that 25.2 million PCs continue to run on Windows XP.

With access to source code, identifying vulnerabilities in the operating system becomes far easier for cybercriminals. In other words, with the Windows XP source code published online, millions of PCs are now at even greater risk of attack.

Further, if chinks in the security armor are identified in the Windows XP source code, it is possible the same code has been recycled and deployed in newer operating systems - such as Windows 10 - which might therefore suffer the same vulnerability.

According to the individual responsible for the source code leak, however, Windows XP source code has been circulating within hacking communities for years now.

If true, it could be safe to assume the code has already been pored over for potential weaknesses and therefore hackers are less likely to identify significant new opportunities as a result of the public leak.

• Here's our list of the best business computers around

First launched all the way back in 2001, Microsoft’s long-defunct Windows XP operating system is still alive and kicking among some pockets of users, according to data from NetMarketShare.

As of last month, 1.26% of all laptops and desktop computers worldwide were still running on the 19-year-old OS. That’s a greater proportion than much younger operating systems Windows 8 (0.57%), ChromeOS (0.42%) and Windows Vista (0.12%).

Windows XP officially reached end of life on April 14 2014, meaning Microsoft has not provided important technical and security updates for the OS for more than six years.

• Check out our list of the best mobile workstations on the market
• We've built a list of the best business laptops available
• Here's our list of the best workstations out there

Estimates suggest there are now more than two billion computers in circulation worldwide which, if accurate, would mean that 25.2 million PCs continue to run on the highly insecure Windows XP.

Windows 10 market share

Windows 10, meanwhile, is now in use across more than 60% of all computers worldwide - up from just over 50% twelve months ago.

The figures highlight Microsoft’s enduring market dominance, despite the high profile of Apple Mac computers. The closest non-Microsoft rival by market share is Mac OS X 10.15 with 3.49%, followed by Mac OS X 10.14 (2.96%) and 10.13 (1.44%).

The creeping rise of Windows 10 mirrors an equivalent decline in the percentage of machines running Windows 7, which fell from 31.53% to 22.31% over the course of the last year.

With Windows 7 having reached end of life in January, it’s important that users upgrade to Microsoft’s newest OS in order to shield against unpatched vulnerabilities.

Safe in the knowledge that Microsoft will no longer deliver security patches for outdated operating systems, cybercriminals can dedicate resources to developing malware designed specifically to exploit older flaws.

Given the significant pool of computers that still run on unsupported operating systems, the potential scope of attacks remains significant.

The advice for users hoping to remain as secure as possible is to update to the latest Windows, Mac or Linux OS and to protect their devices with a modern antivirus solution.

• Here's our list of the best business computers around

More and more users around the world are upgrading to Windows 10, but many are still sticking with older software editions, new data has shown.

The latest figures from NetMarketShare have shown that Windows 10 is now being used on nearly two-thirds of Windows devices as Microsoft's push continues to bear fruit

Overall, Windows 10 was found to be running 59.37% of devices, making it far and away the most popular edition of the operating system.

• These are the best laptops for work you can buy today
• Check out the best Linux laptops
• And these are the best business desktop PC choices out there

Windows 10 vs Windows 7

Windows boasts 87.03% of the desktop and laptop market share, however, older versions of Microsoft's operating system are still in regular use. 

In particular, Windows 7, despite having reached its end of support in January 2020, is still being used on 23.34% of PCs out there according to NetMarketShare.

Even worse, the venerable Windows XP still boasts 0.82% of all Windows users, meaning millions of devices could be at risk of attack due to running the outdated and unprotected software.

It seems that many users remain reluctant to make the upgrade to Windows 10 given Microsoft’s unfortunate recent habit of apparently breaking bits of its newest OS on a regular basis. 

Microsoft will now be keen to ensure Windows 10 growth continues throughout 2020 as the operating system now seems to have recovered from the fall it experienced in April 2020, where the OS dropped from 57.34% the previous month down to 56%.

Elsewhere, Linux use continued to rise, reaching 3.57% after climbing above the 3% marker for the first time in June 2020, Apple's macOS share fell again to just 8.95% (down from 9.68% the previous month), and Chrome OS (used by Chromebook devices) stayed fairly solid at 0.39% market share.

• We solve 100 common Windows 10 problems

Despite the fact that running an unsupported or near end-of-life operating system increases security risks, new research from Kaspersky has revealed that many businesses and consumers are still using Windows 7 and some have yet to upgrade past Windows XP.

Researchers from the cybersecurity firm analyzed data collected from Kaspersky Security Network users regarding what operating system they use and the results show that 41 percent of consumers still use obsolete systems including extremely old ones like Windows XP and Vista.

At the same time, 40 percent of very small businesses (VSBs) and 48 percent of SMBs and enterprises still rely on these outdated systems. 

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When it comes to specific versions of outdated operating systems used, two percent of consumers and one percent of workstations used by VSBs run Windows XP even though it hasn't been supported for over 10 years. 

Less than half a percent of consumers (0.3 percent) and VSBs (0.2 percent) still prefer Windows Vista for which mainstream support ended seven rears ago. Surprisingly, a small number of consumers (1 percent) and businesses (0.6 percent of VSBs and 0.4 percent of SMBs and enterprises) missed their chance to upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free and continue to use Windows 8 although it has not been supported by Microsoft since January 2016.

Outdated operating systems

Windows 7 remains a popular choice for both consumers and businesses even while the operating systems' End of Life is coming at the end of January 2020.  Over a third (38 percent) of consumers and VSBs and 47 percent of SMBs and enterprises still run this version of Windows despite the known risks in doing so.

Enterprise solutions manager at Kaspersky, Alexey Pankratov explained in a blog post that the cost of upgrading may be high for some users but in the long run it will be cheaper than dealing with a security incident later on, saying:

“Statistics show that a significant share of users, both businesses and individuals, still use workstations running an outdated or approaching end of lifecycle OS. The widespread use of Windows 7 is concerning, as there is less than six months to go until this version becomes unsupported. The reasons behind this lag vary depending on the software in place, which may be unable to run on the newest OS versions, to economic reasons and even just down to habit. Nonetheless, an old unpatched OS is a cybersecurity risk – the cost of an incident may be substantially higher than the cost of upgrading. This is why we recommend that customers migrate to supported versions and ensure that additional security tools are in place during the transition period.” 

If you've yet to do so, it is highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest version of Windows to avoid putting your sensitive files and data at risk.

• Don't want to update to the latest version of Windows? Check out the best alternative operating systems instead

Microsoft has put out a warning to those still using its Windows XP, Windows 7 or other early operating systems (OS), urging them to update their PCs with the latest security patch in order to prevent against a serious threat.

The computing giant has discovered a vulnerability in these earlier versions of its OS that's similar in nature to the devastating WannaCry ransomware that swept the globe in May, 2017 and continues to affect thousands of users.

The vulnerability is ‘wormable’, according to Microsoft, which means that no user interaction is required for their system to be exploited, and affected systems are capable of propagating the virus to other at-risk computers and networks around the world. 

• Will WannaCry malware finally get everyone to leave Windows XP?
• WannaCry hit Windows 7 systems hardest, new research shows

How to patch

Microsoft has claimed that it has, as yet, “observed no exploitation of this vulnerability, [but] it is highly likely that malicious actors will write an exploit for this vulnerability and incorporate it into their malware”.

As such, the software heavyweight is urging that “affected systems are patched as quickly as possible to prevent such a scenario from happening”.

There are download links to the appropriate updates found at the foot of this page for those still using any of the following operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2008, Windows 2003 or Windows XP.

Users running Windows 8 and Windows 10 aren’t at risk of this particular exploit, although it’s always wise to keep up to date with the latest security patches regardless.

• Everything you need to know about ransomware in 2019

The manufacturing industry is currently undergoing its own digital transformation in the form of Industry 4.0, where cyber-physical systems (CPSs) combine physical components and digital networks to change how companies automate processes and share information.

However, new research from Trend Micro has revealed that the rise of Industry 4.0 has introduced a whole new range of security issues now that IT, operational technology (OT) and intellectual property have been integrated.

The firm's “Securing Smart Factories Threats to Manufacturing Environments in the Era of Industry 4.0” report raised the argument that WannaCry is still a real risk due to the fact that manufacturing companies use unpatched operating systems such as Windows XP more than any other sector.

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This puts the manufacturing industry at serious risk of ransomware attacks which have the potential to derail their operations due to the amount of data or company time lost.

Increased security risks

Trend Micro's report also shed light on how USB flash drives containing malware are more prevalent in the manufacturing sector than any other. During the second half of 2018, 25.77 percent of USB worm detections occurred in the sector which was almost double that of government (13.49%) and education (12.73%).

Malicious CAD files also pose a threat to the industry as hackers could use them for industrial espionage to steal corporate IP and confidential information. Once again this threat was more prevalent in the manufacturing sector (23.15%) than in other sectors such as real estate (19.75%) or government (13.49%).

According to the report, Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI), the dashboard that allows humans to control a machine, are hackers' number one route into a manufacturer and they account for 60.6 percent of equipment exploits. Hackers can access HMIs remotely over the internet and can read and often tamper with readings on critical machinery.

Improving the manufacturing process through the use of technology certainly has huge potential benefits but businesses looking to do so must carefully consider the security implications to have a successful Industry 4.0 journey.

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If you’re a PC gamer with a large library of Steam games, and are running Windows XP or Windows Vista, then you’ll want to upgrade to Windows 10 (or Windows 7 or Windows 8.1) pretty soon, as Valve has announced that Steam will no longer run on those older operating systems from January 1, 2019.

Valve announced the decision on the Steam website, where it confirmed that “the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.”

According to Valve, the reason for this is because new features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer works with older versions of Windows. For the rest of this year, Steam will continue to run on XP and Vista, but some features, such as Steam Chat, will be disabled.

A dying breed

So, how many gamers will this affect? In a recent Steam hardware survey, only 0.22% of Steam users run Windows XP 32-bit. Meanwhile, the number of Windows XP 64-bit, and Windows Vista users is so small, they don’t even show up on the chart.

Meanwhile, Windows 10 64-bit is by far the most popular operating system for Steam users, with 55.53% running the operating system as of May 2018.

So, hopefully the dropped support for Windows XP and Windows Vista won’t disrupt too many people. 

However, if you are running those legacy operating systems, it is a good idea to upgrade, as Microsoft has long since stopped supporting the operating system for consumers – and earlier this week also announced that it was ceasing technical support for Windows 7.

• If you’re a PC gamer that’s already upgraded to Windows 10, then make sure you check out TechRadar’s PC Gaming Week 2018, where we have a range of articles and reviews that celebrate the joys of gaming on PC.

Via On Msft

Apple is dropping iTunes Store support for Windows XP and Vista, hammering one more nail into the elderly operating systems' coffins.

According to a post on Apple's support site, the security changes also affect first-generation Apple TVs, which it calls "obsolete".

"After May 25, you'll need to use Windows 7 or later with the latest version of iTunes to make purchases from the iTunes Store and redownload previous purchases," the company said.

XP and Vista users can keep running older versions on iTunes, but won't be able to upgrade or receive support from Apple.

Beyond the grave

Anyone still using XP or Vista has far bigger issues to worry about than their music library. Connecting a PC running Vista or XP to any network is a very bad idea, due to the risk posed by unpatched security vulnerabilities.

Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows XP back in 2009, but continued to offer regular security updates until 2014. Versions of XP used in embedded systems (like ATMs) will continue until next year. Support for Vista ended in 2017. 

Windows Vista only holds a tiny fraction of the market, but XP is still the third most popular desktop operating system according to statistics from NetMarketShare. 

Due to both operating system's refusal to roll over and die, Microsoft released an patch to protect stalwart Vista and XP users from last year's WannaCry ransomware attack.

• What are the best free alternatives to iTunes?

Earlier this year, Blizzard said it was going to cease supporting Windows XP and Vista across its library of contemporary Battle.net games, and the company has just confirmed that this will happen on a rolling basis starting in October.

That means dropping support for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, as well as Diablo III, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm (Overwatch never supported these outdated operating systems anyway).

So what, you might think? Well, as we saw with the recent WannaCry outbreak, there are still around one in 14 PCs out there running Windows XP (and a small amount still on Vista), despite the fact that Microsoft stopped supporting XP over three years ago now (and Vista earlier this year).

And of course, there are still some people playing some of these games on older machines with these outdated operating systems (depending on the exact spec of the old PC, they may run well enough). We certainly saw complaints earlier this year from World of Warcraft players on XP who heard this move was incoming and weren’t too chuffed.

That said, Blizzard has obviously balanced up the numbers of folks playing its games on these platforms, and the effort/cost of continuing to support XP and Vista, and decided it was time to call it game over.

As the company explains: “There have been three major Windows releases since Vista, and at this point, the vast majority of our audience has upgraded to one of the newer versions.”

Staggered switch-off

As mentioned, dropping support will be implemented on a rolling basis, in other words, a staggered schedule of one game at a time, rather than the whole lot at once. Blizzard says it will give folks a bit of advance warning of when a title is about to have support switched off.

Once that switch is flicked, the game in question will no longer run on Windows XP or Vista.

Even though this will come as a blow to some of the XP diehards out there, it’s true that given the age of this OS now, they should have been looking at a Windows upgrade some time back. Or perhaps a Linux sidestep (and emulation). If you’re connected to the net on a PC which isn’t receiving security patches, you really are taking a big risk.

Of course, this has also sparked chatter online concerning when Windows 7 might suffer the same fate, given the many stalwarts who have refused to upgrade to Windows 10 for a variety of reasons.

Microsoft’s extended support for Windows 7 will finish in 2020, so if you look at XP which has been abandoned three years after its extended date, that will put us in 2023 or thereabouts.

Via: Betanews

• Consider splashing out for one of the best gaming keyboards

Microsoft has issued patches for all of its older unsupported versions of Windows – including Windows XP and Vista – to protect these outdated operating systems from three NSA exploits (nastiness along the lines of the NSA-leveraged vulnerability which the WannaCry malware was built around).

The software giant did previously say that it wasn’t going to patch these holes in older incarnations of Windows, but now appears to have thought better of that policy.

The obvious fear is that with Shadow Brokers, the group which leaked the NSA exploit that powered WannaCry, promising to release more tools for hackers this month, Microsoft feels that the many Windows XP users still out there are potentially under major threat.

Of course, a precedent had already been set because Microsoft patched Windows XP against WannaCry when the ransomware broke out in rampant and high-profile fashion last month.

The trouble is, though, that these moves give users and businesses out there still running with Windows XP some measure of confidence that Microsoft is still protecting them, in an albeit limited manner.

• Still running XP? Consider upgrading to a Razer Blade Stealth

Dangerous message

And that’s a dangerous message to send to those plentiful folks who really should have upgraded a long time ago, given that XP is over three years past its sell-by-date in terms of patch support.

Microsoft said it took the action because there is an “elevated risk for destructive cyberattacks at this time”.

The patched flaws only affect older versions of Windows, incidentally, so there’s no need for those running the likes of Windows 7/8/10 to worry.

Microsoft stated: “It is important to note that if you’re running a supported version of Windows, such as Windows 10 or Windows 8.1, and you have Windows Update enabled, you don’t need to take any action.

“As always, we recommend customers upgrade to the latest platforms. The best protection is to be on a modern, up-to-date system that incorporates the latest innovations. Older systems, even if fully up-to-date, lack the latest security features and advancements.”

Via: ZDNet

• The Surface Pro isn't nearly as vulnerable as a Windows XP computer

Hopefully there are going to be plenty of lessons learned from the WannaCry fracas, and with any luck, it will see folks finally abandoning Windows XP for good – and that’s certainly something that needs to happen as XP is still the third most-used desktop operating system in the world.

That’s despite the fact that it hasn’t received security patches from Microsoft for over three years now, meaning it has more holes than a leaky bucket – including vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited, as what happened with the WannaCry ransomware which hit the NHS so badly.

According to Netmarketshare’s desktop operating system statistics for April, no less than 7.04% of PCs out there are still using Windows XP (and a good number of them are likely to reside in a corporate environment).

This makes it the third most popular OS, behind only Windows 7 (48.5%) and Windows 10 (26.28%).

Windows 8.1 is just lagging XP on 6.96%, with macOS 10.12 on 3.21% in fifth place, and Linux following on 2.09%. Windows 8 is just behind that on 1.59%, so if you were to lump that in with Windows 8.1, the total of Windows 8/8.1 would actually be slightly higher than Windows XP.

But technically speaking, Netmarketshare counts these as separate operating systems, so XP is in third place. And at any rate, 7% of all PCs is clearly a ludicrous amount of machines out there running such an outdated OS – with security risks that have been so clearly underlined at the close of last week.

• The best laptops certainly aren't running Windows XP anymore

Deep impact

Such has been the widespread impact of the WannaCry ransomware that Microsoft has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a special security patch for Windows XP systems – while not hesitating to note that Windows 10 was not targeted by the attack.

As mentioned, many of these Windows XP PCs are likely to be in corporate or public sector environments, with many businesses still having at least the odd PC tucked away in a corner somewhere running the horribly outdated OS.

So, given the amount of publicity and heat the whole WannaCry incident has generated, with any luck these companies will be seriously re-evaluating their migration strategies, with a view to putting pedal-to-the-metal in terms of upgrading from XP.

Otherwise, even if you’re a tech-savvy individual who would never have Windows XP on a machine at home, you could still be affected by the curse of XP if your data is being held by an organization that still insists on using the operating system. And that is not a happy thought…

Via: Business Insider UK

• Having the best antivirus software is never a bad bet, either

While Windows 10 adoption is motoring along with businesses now, far too many organisations are still running Windows XP – which has been unsupported by Microsoft for three years now – and indeed Windows Vista, which officially runs out of road for security patches next week.

According to new research from Spiceworks, using data collected anonymously from ‘hundreds of thousands of IT pros’ across the world, over half of all businesses out there – 52% of them – are still running at least one instance of Windows XP.

In other words, XP isn’t being run company-wide in these cases, and there may be only one machine in the corner using the long-outdated operating system – but clearly at this point, that’s still one PC too many which represents a big security risk for the overall network.

The ‘2017 OS Adoption Trends’ study, which used data collected over the month of March, also found that 9% of firms are still running at least one instance of Windows Vista. It’s not surprising that’s a far smaller percentage considering Vista was never the most popular OS in the first place, but it remains a worrying statistic.

As mentioned, a week today Microsoft will pull the plug on official support for Vista.

• Upgrade to one of the best laptops of 2017 today

Strong shift

The good news for Microsoft is that more businesses are shifting over to Windows 10, with Spiceworks finding that 54% of companies worldwide have now adopted Microsoft’s newest OS. That’s a strong increase since last July, when only 38% of organisations had made the leap.

Remember that this is businesses running at least some copies of Windows 10, not necessarily across the whole firm. As for its overall market share of operating systems across companies, Windows 10 is running on 9% of all business PCs worldwide, a much smaller number than its adoption level.

When it comes to overall market share, Windows 7 is still king by a long way, being installed on 69% of all business PCs across the globe. Worryingly, it’s followed by Windows XP on 14% of machines, then Windows 10 on 9% as mentioned, with Windows 8 on 5% of business PCs, and Vista is at the bottom of the pile on 1%.

A separate Spiceworks survey predicted that Windows 10’s adoption rate will accelerate to 73% in July of this year, and its overall market share on business PCs will be boosted to 17%. That’s nearly double what it is now, and a major increase, so it seems that Microsoft’s newest OS is expected to make good progress this year in the business world.

Let’s just hope that those many organisations still running the hopelessly outdated Windows XP see some sense, and are part of this new crowd flocking to Windows 10.

Peter Tsai, senior technology analyst at Spiceworks, commented: “Windows Vista isn’t nearly as common in business as Windows XP, but the approaching Vista end of support date serves as a good reminder to upgrade PCs still running unsupported operating systems.

“Although some IT departments aren’t able to upgrade on time due to a lack of time or budget, it’s critical for IT professionals to make a business case for more resources, given the security risks of running operating systems with unpatched vulnerabilities.”

• Read our fully updated review of Windows 10 with the Creators Update

It's 15 years since Windows XP lit up monitors with its idyllic green hills and welcoming blue interface.

XP had some mighty fine gaming chops and was the default option for PC gamers between 2001 and 2006, with many iconic titles released during its tenure. Whether in camp Nvidia or ATI, gamers had a blast.

Microsoft's zombie-like OS may be dead as a dodo two years after the company stopped patching it with security updates, but the stats show that despite this 10.9% of computer owners are yet to upgrade to a newer platform.

Whether you fancy a trip down memory lane or are looking for a new adventure to embark on Microsoft's rusty vessel, here are the 10 best games to have graced Windows XP.

• 10 features that helped Windows XP achieve legendary status

M-m-m-m-m-monster kill! Released in 1999, Unreal Tournament hit its stride in the XP years and was one of three first-person shooters played at the 2001 World Cyber Games (along with Quake 3 and Counter: Strike).

From the best sniping map of all time (that's Facing Worlds, natch), to the Flak Cannon and its pioneering Assault Mode, UT99 had it all. Its futuristic multi-level arenas, frenetic mods (remember Instagib?) and snarky insults made for an addictive shooter that's still played by a hardcore minority today.

Epic is co-developing a totally Godlike remake, IRC QuakeNet channel not included. (For shame.)

Gordon Freeman's second outing hit the rocks when Half-Life 2's source code spilled onto the torrent sites with 12 months of development yet to go.

Gabe Newell and Valve somehow turned it around to unleash a classic sequel, and the first FPS to make physics an integral part of the gameplay (thanks to the Gravity Gun). Set in the Orwellian City 17, Half-Life 2's clever enemy AI, high-tech weaponry and atmospheric locations made for an FPS like no other.

Unfortunately for fans, Half-Life 3 is yet to surface some 12 years later. Even the All-Knowing Vortigaunt doesn't know whether it will see the light of day.

Black & White: the best game to ever receive a rating of 85% from Playboy magazine, and a Peter Molyneux classic.

Part strategy game and part Tamagotchi sim, you're a God tasked with ruling over a tribal village while mentoring a skyscraper-sized creature - such as a cow or an ape. Molyneux described the game as a "big personality test" due to its gameplay, which brands you as good or evil depending on your actions.

Morality systems in videogames are commonplace now, but Black & White managed to make you feel genuinely guilty if you bashed your cow over the head too many times back in 2004. Which you totally did, you monster.

Camping. The AWP. De_Dust. "It's gonna' blow!" They're just a small sample of phrases from the Counter Strike 1.6 lexicon, familiar to anyone who spent an unhealthy number of hours camping in corners, playing 'Gun Game' well into the night and perfecting that all-important AK47 headshot.

Simpler than its modern equivalents, the original Half-Life mod is just as fun to play in 2016 as it was when its big CD box landed on videogame shop shelves in 2001. Remember them?

With more than 5.5 million subscribers, Blizzard's MMORPG still has the same number of online players as Singapore has people.

It's little wonder then, that WoW has raked in more coin than any other game in history. Launched in XP's 2004 gaming heyday, World of Warcraft's original art style and accessible gameplay helped it appeal to just about any kind of gamer.

You can delve into a few side quests on your own over a weekend or spend hours tackling lengthy raids as part of a clan. Or, if you're Leeroy Jenkins, well, you know the rest…

Improved combat, ragdoll physics and gorgeous graphics helped the fourth Elder Scrolls game feel like the first truly modern entry into the Elder Scrolls series.

Oblivion's Prison Break-style intro set the bar high, and not just because the Emperor's opening monologue is voiced by a certain Patrick Stewart.

Before long you're badgering NPCs, punching boars in the snout and legging it from multi-limbed Land Dreughs, which came four years before Dead Space's hellish Necromorphs.

The daddy of the "Nope!" moment, Doom 3 rebooted id Software's classic franchise and a whole genre in the process.

Much of the game's tension is generated by the id Tech 4 game engine which - unlike Unreal Tournament, Quake III and other FPSs of its era – computed lighting on-the-fly. This was used to great effect by forcing you to hold either a torch or a weapon at any one time, placing you on the edge of cardiac arrest when venturing into a pitch-black room.

With most of the game set aboard a Mars research facility inhabited by creatures from the depths of Hell, being in the dark for most of the game proved slightly problematic.

Set four thousands years before before the events of the movies, SW: KOTOR was the first RPG set in the Star Wars universe. As the story went, Darth Malak had unleashed a murderous Sith army onto the galaxy and needed to be stopped.

Naturally, you spent half your time squaring up to bartenders in Tattooine cantinas, conscripting droids into your band of allies and helping wookies fight anyone who looked at them funny.

Combat was tactical, with damage caused by every blaster shot or lightsaber swing determined by a dice roll, and stealing armor from your downed enemies' backs was vital to gaining the upper hand. Three basic classes gave you an excuse to revisit the game after a while, as did its numerous mods.

Battlefield 2 wasn't just a game in 2004 – it was a way of life for many bedroom-bound soldiers. Clans and friendships were forged and broken over who piloted the AH-17 aircraft, and using the medic's defibrillator to literally give enemies the shock of death was more fun than it had any right to be.

Shooters from that era demanded fast reflexes, but Battlefield 2 was a better fit for savvy tacticians. It was a game that introduced scores of PC gamers to team-based chat programs such as Ventrillo, making it one of the most social shooters of the XP era.

There were few games worth waiting for your humming desktop PC to boot up for than the original Far Cry. A, ahem, far cry from 'Primal' and its other modern incarnations, the first game in the series was one of the first open-world shooters in an era when a 'sandbox' was something that kids built castles in.

The game that introduced Crysis developer Crytek to the world, Far Cry's visuals were stunning at the time, requiring a GeForce2+ or Radeon 8500+ GPU to render its large maps.

Taking out mercenaries from afar with an assault rifle was all part of the fun. Its mutated Trigrens that could kill you with two swipes of their muscular arms? Yeah, not so much.

Introduction

It's been two years since Microsoft stopped releasing security updates for Windows XP, which first landed on PCs 15 years ago.

The anniversary serves as another annual reminder that you're swimming in dangerous waters if you're using Windows XP to access the internet. If a new strand of malware infects your machine, well, you're on your own.

You can, of course, continue using your PC running the creaky-at-the-knees operating system, but doing so ramps up the risk to your security and privacy.

• 10 features that helped Windows XP achieve legendary status

Over time, support for your favorite apps will end too, so perhaps an alternative approach is called for. That approach obviously means moving on from Windows XP, either to a new version of Windows or even a completely different platform.

But what does the future hold for your trusty old PC? Read on to find out what to do with it should you decide to finally part ways with XP.

1. Upgrade it to Windows 7 or 8 (or Windows 10)

If you're still attached to your old PC – perhaps for financial reasons – then ask if you might be able to upgrade it to a later version of Windows. The obvious candidates are Windows 7 and 8, because both will be familiar to you, and don't have demanding system requirements.

If your PC has a 1GHz or faster processor, 1GB RAM, 20GB free hard drive space and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics card or chip, it'll work with the newer version of Windows. Performance won't be as fast as in XP, but it should be acceptable, particularly if you don't run too many programs at once.

Before taking the plunge however, download and run either the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor or Windows 8.1 Upgrade Assistant to get a more detailed compatibility report – you may find the cost of upgrading or replacing different parts of your PC is more expensive than simply replacing it.

Of course, you could upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 10, but bear in mind that there is no way to upgrade while keeping your existing files, programs and settings unless you manually back them up. If you're thinking of doing this, it's also worth bearing in mind that your ageing PC's hardware may not be up to the task of running Windows 10, and putting the cost of a license for Microsoft's latest operating system toward a new laptop, 2-in-1 or desktop PC may be a more cost-effective move in the long rum.

2. Replace it

A new desktop PC or tablet computer with Windows 10 pre-installed can be purchased for under £265 (around $300, AUS$500). If you decide the end has come for your old Windows XP PC, make sure you dispose of it carefully and responsibly.

Once your new PC is up and running, wait until you're happy you've transferred over all the documents, files and other data you need from your old PC before taking steps to securely shred all personal data from the drive.

If you're planning to pass the computer on to someone else, use a free tool like Eraser to wipe sensitive files from the drive, then restore it to its factory settings before using Eraser to securely wipe any free space for added security.

If you plan to dispose of the computer, use Darik's Boot and Nuke tool to create a bootable CD that will completely wipe the drive of all data, allowing you to then take it to your local recycling center or pass it on to a charity such as Computers 4 Africa.

3. Switch to Linux

If you're looking for a modern OS to replace XP that will run smoothly on your old PC, then Linux is the answer. We'd recommend that you choose Ubuntu as your Linux distribution of choice, and download the latest LTS version, currently 12.04, which will be supported until 2017.

It's relatively straightforward to install and you'll find our 25 Ubuntu tips for beginners piece a handy starting point. Look out for a switcher's guide in a future issue of Linux Format.

4. Your personal cloud

One way to keep your old PC working for a while longer is to convert it for use as a dedicated server of some kind. If it's a low-powered laptop, then a great use for it would be as your personal cloud device, allowing you to back up, archive and store documents and other files away from your new computer.

Check out our guide to building a low-powered Linux-based file server, or take a look at ClearOS.

5. Build a media server

Another possible use for your old PC could be as the focal hub for your videos, photos and music, collecting them together in one convenient central location and then piping them over the network (and wider internet) to other devices, including computers, tablets, phones and even smart TVs and set-top boxes. Check out our guide to building a Raspberry Pi server, substituting your old PC for the Pi. It's by no means a powerhouse, but the Raspberry Pi 3 is a more than capable computer if all you want to do is surf the web, stream video and even undertake some light image editing.

6. Convert it into a home security hub

If you've got a big hard drive installed and are willing to shell out £40-50 ($65- $85) for a wireless security camera, you could convert your old PC into a dedicated CCTV system using Ubuntu Server and the free Zoneminder CCTV software following our guide.

It's designed to run headless, which means you won't need to connect a monitor or keyboard/mouse to use it; instead you'll access the system through a web browser on another device to remotely administer it as well as take a peek at what the cameras have recorded.

7. Host websites yourself

If you're happy to leave your old PC on 24/7, you could turn it into a web server, letting you avoid the expense of paying for a web host and serving your website directly over your home internet connection. A tool like Turnkey Linux would allow you to do this without any software cost, but bear in mind you'll need a fast, unmetered broadband connection. You should also check your Internet Provider's T&Cs to make sure they allow this kind of use.

8. Gaming server

If you're into your network gaming, pressing your old PC into service as a dedicated gaming server will take the load off your main PC and let it concentrate on delivering the best possible performance. A gaming server doesn't require any meaty graphics or much RAM, but a fast processor will be helpful if you plan to play against lots of other users.

Depending on the age of your PC, you may find it's not capable of handling large numbers of players, while the speed of your broadband connection (as well as your ISP's T&Cs) may hobble any plans you have to play over the internet.

But for small-scale gaming parties during which three or four of you fancy shooting the heck out of each other using a classic game like Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament, your old PC may be just the ticket, particularly if the game in question runs on Linux, allowing you to ditch XP at the same time

• End of support for Windows XP: What are the options?

It's now been exactly two years since Microsoft ceased support for Windows XP, meaning that users of the OS are no longer covered with security updates. As such, vulnerabilities in the software waiting to be exploited – yet still a worrying amount of people are using Microsoft's zombie-like operating system.

How many exactly? According to one bean counting firm, Netmarketshare, as of March Windows XP still holds a 10.9% share of the desktop OS market. More people are currently using XP than Apple's OS X 10.11 El Capitan (4.05%) and Windows 8.1 (9.56%). Windows 10, which saw a big jump to overtake XP in February, is marginally more popular with 14.15% of users; however, neither trouble Windows 7 and its 51.89% share of the user base.

• 8 uses for your old Windows XP machine

That's a considerable chunk of die-hards using Windows XP, and quite a remarkably large figure for an OS which was launched in 2001. Back in the day, Microsoft spent over a billion dollars marketing XP, but we're guessing that even Redmond didn't think it would be so entrenched that so many users would remain 15 years on.

And all of those users, of course, are exposing themselves to obvious risks.

Key features

Why was Windows XP so popular? The fact is that it introduced a lot of major new features, and it was also a matter of good timing for Microsoft, with the operating system being a major improvement on the poorly thought of Windows ME – with its successor Vista being delayed, and then badly received upon release.

There may be many reasons why people are still clinging to Windows XP, but perhaps the two-year anniversary of support ending will be a useful prompt as to just how out-of-date this OS now is.

If you're still on XP, it would be well worth thinking long and hard about finally making the switch – and if you're not willing to touch more modern versions of Microsoft's desktop OS with a barge pole, then maybe that switch should be to Linux.

• Also check out: 10 features that helped Windows XP achieve legendary status

It's been two years since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP, meaning if you're still running it and malware writers find a way to attack you, you're on your own. And despite the fact that it was launched in 2001, there are still people running Windows XP (a few of them in government departments that should know better).

Depending on whose measurements you believe, Windows 7 didn't overtake Windows XP as the most widely used version of Windows until 2011 or even the middle of 2012; even in 2014, you could still find it on as many as a third of all PCs around the world. Different tracking services show different numbers, but whoever is measuring, XP is the OS that won't quit.

Businesses – and home users – who didn't want to replace PCs that were doing what they needed to do, even for the improvements of a new OS. Then there are the gamers who need it for compatibility. For years, South Koreans had to stick with XP to run IE 6 for the ActiveX plugin that was the only way to shop online.

• What to do with your old Windows XP PC

XP's success was largely a matter of timing. It was a significant improvement over Windows ME, and Windows Vista was delayed so long by the problems Microsoft had building Longhorn (and devalued by the underspecified PCs many OEMs shipped it on when it did arrive), that in the public's mind, XP was Windows.

Partly that's because of the long list of key features that showed up first (or worked properly for the first time) in Windows XP. And because PC sales boomed after 2001 - by 2006 Windows XP was on 400 million computers - for many people, Windows XP was just what came on their first computer.

These days, an iPad or smartphone are most people's first computer, so even though it's the fastest adopted version of Windows ever, Windows 10 is going to have to significantly redefine what it means to use a PC to have the same kind of impact Windows XP did.

Here are 10 features that helped arguably Microsoft's greatest OS cement its legendary status.

Windows XP was the first consumer version of Windows to use the NT kernel, which is what now powers everything from Windows 10, to Windows Phone, Xbox One and Azure, instead of being based on Microsoft-DOS.

Having one operating system for business and home users meant people could use the same interface on their home PC and at work, and get more comfortable with it; another reason that Windows XP became an operating system people loved. It also gave Microsoft a much bigger marketplace to sell Windows.

Using the NT kernel gave XP lots of advantages, from multi-threading to better memory management, and made it possible to move from 32-bit to 64-bit processors; it made a home operating system really powerful.

Windows XP had a huge number of the features we now expect in an operating system, both for home and business users. (It also introduced the sometime confusing notion that there were different editions of Windows, with different features.)

Existing tools like Explorer got new features, like task panes and thumbnails – including the option to rotate an image that was the wrong way up – as well as showing you metadata for a file. Desktop search made it easier to find files; there was even a search assistant with a choice of three characters – somewhere between Clippy and Cortana. Backup software was included, along with a new, automatic system recovery option.

The Windows installer meant there was a standard way of installing new software. Clear Type let you tweak the way fonts were displayed to make them easier to read. Business users got the first version of Remote Dektop – and those remote connections were used for Remote Assistance, which let technology support look at or take over your system to help you. And for the first time, Windows could support multiple languages.

The famous Windows XP desktop background – a green hillside in Napa, California referred to as Bliss – was one of the most distinctive features of a new user interface that was designed to be friendly, right from the new Welcome screen that had your name on.

The Start menu from Windows 95 got a colorful makeover; a new, blue Start button, and two columns of buttons on the Start menu with links to common tasks you needed frequently. Tabs on the Taskbar sorted themselves neatly into groups and you could pin the programs you needed the most to the new quick launch bar.

The interface took advantage of the new features in GDI+, the new graphics subsystem in Windows XP; anti-aliased 2D graphics, textures, gradient shading and more, giving users transparent labels for the icons on the desktop (complete with drop shadows to make them stand out), the shadow that gave menus a 3D look, the translucent selection grabber in Windows Explorer and the task panes that slid out when you wanted them.

Windows XP wasn't the first version of Windows to let you give the interface your own look if you didn't like Bliss, but previously you'd needed to pay extra for the Plus Pack to do it.

With Windows XP themes were built into the interface and they became hugely popular, with fan web sites springing up where you could download custom themes. Windows XP was more colorful and you could really make it yours.

Windows XP came along just as malware and spyware became a huge problem, and the RTM version wasn't secure enough to cope. Viruses like Code Red, Nimda, SQL Slammer and Blaster caused so many problems that they made it into the news and in 2002, Bill Gates had developers at Microsoft down tools and stop coding while everyone got security training.

The result of that was XP Service Pack 2 in 2004, which included a new version of the Windows Firewall turned on by default, execution protection to help prevent buffer overruns and protection in the networking stack.

SP2 was a huge step forward and made XP much more secure, and in just a few years Microsoft went from producing notoriously insecure software to becoming an industry leader for secure development and response. As XP aged, even with SP3, it wasn't able to keep up with new threats and even when it was still getting security patches, it never became as secure as Vista (and certainly not as secure as Windows 7).

But vital as those service packs were to turn the tide of viruses and Trojans, along with the delay in finishing Vista, they meant that people got used to running Windows XP and just getting service packs rather than switching to a new version of Windows every few years. That's what you'll finally get with Windows 10, but you have to move to Windows 10 to get it.

The default browser in XP, IE 6 tends to be mocked for its poor security and incompatibility with standards, but the real problem with IE 6 was that people kept on using it for so long, and web sites kept coding for its quirks (and pushing that code at any version of IE).

That was mostly Microsoft's fault – once IE had a dominant market share, it went into maintenance mode, IE 7 didn't arrive for five years and it was 2009 before IE 8 came along, starting Microsoft back into serious browser development.

But when it came out, IE 6 was the most standards-compliant browser on the market and it introduced features that became the basis of modern web development (when browsers and sites beyond Microsoft picked them up and made them far more widely used).

Under the hood, Windows XP had significant improvements. Networking was one big area of improvement; as well as offering much better Wi-Fi support and adding native Bluetooth support in SP 2, XP also introduced network Quality of Service, Internet Connection Sharing and simple network file sharing – plus fax support.

Hibernation had been available in previous versions of Windows, but for the first time it became reliable. If you were a business user, you could 'hot dock'; disconnect your laptop from your dock and accessories without having to turn it off and on again. And booting up got faster too; the target was to have Windows start up in just 30 seconds, thanks to an optimization technology called prefetch.

Windows XP added key features to make it easier to install and run applications. The new WinSxS 'side by side' folder helped handle the DLL Hell problem (where one program could overwrite key files than another app needed). XP is where the Dr Watson Windows Error Reporting tool showed up, so instead of wondering why customers were complaining about software, Microsoft could get the crash logs and memory dumps showing what was going wrong so they could find the bug.

2001 was the early days of the iPod and other MP3 players, and Microsoft added support for useful MP3 features to Media Player so you could organize your music collection. And for the first time, CD burning software was bundled with Windows so if you wanted to save a backup of your files or make a mix CD for the car, you could do it without paying extra.

Windows XP also introduced Autoplay; a neat feature that would let music or video start playing or an application start installing as soon as you connected a device or put an optical disc into your PC. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a huge security hole and over the years, Microsoft has had to disable more and more of Autoplay.

As PCs became more popular, users wanted more than just desktops and notebooks and Windows XP adapted to them. In 2002 Microsoft came out with the Tablet PC and Media Center editions, which you could only get with specific hardware.

Media Center supported TV tuners as well as DVD playback and it had its own TV listings so you could use it as a DVR to record TV shows; some models were small PCs to plug into a TV, others were built into LCD TVs. And tablet PCs came with active digital pens and an app called Journal for sketching at taking notes.

They weren't cheap, because they were built for businesses and they didn't have touch screens, and one of the Microsoft engineers working on them annoyed Steve Jobs so much by talking about how good they were going to be that Jobs later claimed he started work on the iPad and iPhone to prove Apple could do it better than Microsoft.

XP also faced down the challenge of netbooks, which were initially based on Linux; afraid of losing the notebook market to cheap and light Linux machines, Microsoft came out with a slightly cut-down and rather cheaper version of XP to put on them instead.

The iPad, the Chromebook, the Apple TV; lots of today's devices go back to hardware that first came out running Windows XP – just another way XP had a huge impact on the world of computing, even if it didn't always mean that Microsoft would keep the computer market it created with XP.

Windows XP users hanging on for dear life are less safe than they've ever been after Microsoft made the already holey security safety net surrounding it even more porous.

First reported by Beta News, Microsoft has stopped providing the Malicious Software Removal Tool as well as updates to its Microsoft Security Essentials in the hope that users finally ditch it in favor of Windows 10.

There are, of course, plenty of other options open to people that want to carry on with Windows XP as third-party security software can keep it going for even longer and there are governments that have paid millions to keep support.

Google has even agreed to keep support for its Chrome browser within Windows XP until at least the end of 2015, despite originally claiming that they would shut down by April 2015.

Upgrade to Windows 10

Windows XP's official end-of-life date was back in April 2014 when most updates, except the small ones mentioned above, ceased and users were advised to upgrade their systems to a new version to stay secure.

The release of Windows 10 on July 29 could sway the last tranche of users that it's high time they upgraded to a new version of Windows and if that doesn't do so then the increasingly insecure nature of the OS will likely push them to do so.

• HP gives us a very good reason to move away from Windows XP

Windows XP remains popular among government agencies after details emerged of the US Navy paying millions to extend support for the outdated OS.

First reported by PC World, a declassified Navy document detailed a $30.8 million (around £19.5 million, or AU$39.95 million) contract signed with Microsoft to continue supporting the OS until 2017 at a cost of $9.1 million (around £5.78 million, or AU$11.81 million) per year.

"The Navy relies on a number of legacy applications and programs that are reliant on legacy Windows products," according to a statement from Steven Davis, a spokesman for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego. "Until those applications and programs are modernized or phased out, this continuity of services is required to maintain operational effectiveness."

Expensive security updates

Alongside Windows XP, it is also receiving support for another soon to be extinct product, Windows Server 2003, as well as Office 2003 and Exchange 2003, although Davis failed to disclose details of the systems that are still using the software.

The US Navy is by no means the only governmental organization running Windows XP long after its expiry date. The UK government, for one, relies on keeping Windows XP going and that's even with the per-PC price for Microsoft's custom support agreements (CSAs) for XP, which are on track to rise to $400 (around £259, or AU$511) in the coming months.

• End of support for Windows XP: what are the options?

When Windows 10 launches in a few weeks' time, deep inside its lines of code is concealed a nifty little application that seems to have been teleported from the 1990's.

While Calc, Paint or even Notepad have had a lick of paint to prepare them for Microsoft's new flagship operating system, the same can't be said about a little known Microsoft app, Journal, which looks almost exactly the same as the original version launched on Windows XP nearly 14 years ago.

Journal, which allows users to create and organise their handwritten notes, could be rightly considered the forerunner of OneNote, Microsoft's de facto note taking application, and was launched at a time when the company was trying to position tablet devices as the next big thing.

Missed opportunities

Windows XP tablet edition was supposed to be the OS driving that but it all ended a little bit miserably as its poor hardware keyboard dependent OS yielded abysmal sales.

Fast forward to 2015 and Journal joins WordPad and Notepad as the default note-taking applications on Windows 10 with Live Writer, One Note and Microsoft Word Mobile Preview being available for download for free.

These two are arguably superior than the three aforementioned applications but their reliance on the cloud as well as their relatively large memory/processor requirements mean that in some cases, a simple word processor is more responsive than its bigger siblings.

An ideal open source candidate?

Journal embraces a rudimentary skeuomorphic design, offering what looks like a paper notepad (with lines). Basic functionalities like being able to choose between writing tools (pen or highlighter) or converting your scribbles into text (via a useful lasso tool) are there but that's it.

The fact that it exports in a proprietary file type (Journal Note) and can only export in two (Web Archive or TIFF) means that it has little appeal for mainstream users other than irreducible aficionados. For now, Journal remains an unsolved mystery; why would Microsoft allow such an antiquated application, one whose functionality is replicated elsewhere in the system, to exist in its flagship OS? No one knows.

For the rest of us, Journal will only ever be an object of curiosity, the vestige of an era of untapped potential when Microsoft could have owned the market for touch devices, one which ultimately fell in Apple's hands.

Maybe Microsoft should open source it, just as it did for Live Writer.

• Best free software for writing: 10 programs to unleash your creativity

Enterprises that want to continue using Windows XP face a hike in the price of support as Microsoft continues to try to persuade companies to leave it behind in favour of a newer model.

A licensing expert, who spoke to Computerworld on the condition of anonymity, explained that the per-PC price for Microsoft's custom support agreements (CSAs) for XP will rocket to $400 (around £259, or AU$511) for any enterprise looking to carry on with support.

Companies that sign CSAs benefit from critical security updates for the OS that was officially retired on April 8, 2014 and the agreements are devised on a firm-by-firm basis. It's also a stipulation that any company signing up must take out the top-tier support plan known as Premier Support.

XP remains on 15 percent of PCs

The original Windows XP CSAs cost $200 (around £129, or AU$255) per PC with a $250,000 (around £161,899, or AU$319,715) cap and the same expert reports firms that have slashed the OS usage in half in the first year will continue to enjoy support at the same price.

Many organisations, including the UK government, still rely on Windows XP and figures from IT security company Secunia showed that around 15.17 percent of the world's computers are still running Windows XP.

Via: Computerworld

• End of support for Windows XP: what are the options?

Even though the deadline for any type of support for Windows XP was up last April, many organisations are still using the venerable operating system to power their PCs and the applications that run on them.

But XP was never a truly secure OS to begin with and despite numerous patches over the years, new vulnerabilities have been found. Of course, since April 2014, no more updates have been provided by Microsoft on general release and this has left anyone still running XP very much exposed to hacking and security breaches.

According to figures from IT security firm Secunia taken from scans by its Personal Software Inspector, around 15.17% of computers around the world are still using Windows XP. Nearly 18% of users are still running with an old version of Internet Explorer.

Data protection

Kasper Lindgaard, Secunia's Director of Research and Security, advises that small businesses should definitely migrate away from Windows XP if they want to protect their data.

"Generally speaking, newly discovered vulnerabilities in XP are unpatchable for private users. XP users are 'free-for-all' to hackers, who can create and use exploits at will," he says.

"Additionally, patches to the other Windows operating systems are likely to be reverse engineered by hackers, to discover which vulnerabilities were fixed by Microsoft, and can be modified to work against Windows XP."

Hype and noise

The hype around the XP deadline was similar to that of Y2K, says Sergio Galindo, general manager at GFI Software, and while the date came and went, nothing blew up.

Galindo notes: "XP attacks do continue, but all the other operating systems remain under attack as well. Although continuing to use Windows XP and older versions of Internet Explorer is unsafe and not recommended, ultimately the question businesses must ask themselves is: how much risk are we willing to take, and how does it compare to the cost of an upgrade?"

Keep on running

But why do firms still insist on running the software? While reasons can range from anything to do with their familiarity with the system, to training requirements or anticipated costs attached to upgrading, the big issue is compatibility as many companies have an aged estate of apps with either OS or IE dependencies, according to HP's Chief Technologist James Morrish.

Microsoft does offer emulation modes, but most companies don't trust this, and the process can be complex to setup and test.

"The challenge is that most businesses have thousands of applications, and typically a Windows 7 migration will also include either extensive application testing or rationalisation and modernisation which would be a huge amount of work," says Morrish. "Many businesses have been avoiding the changeover because they fear the lack of compatibility and loss of productivity during the transition."

"So also, to a certain extent the issue is wrapped up in the cost equation. For the most part, it isn't just that companies can't afford to refresh their hardware, it is that they don't also have the budget and time to test the compatibility of the thousands of applications that the company runs."

Is it possible to safely use XP and IE now there is no more support? It is possible, says Andrew Avanessian, EVP of consultancy and technology services at endpoint security firm Avecto, but he doesn't recommend it.

He says firms that are forced to keep using legacy operating systems can significantly reduce the chance of a cyber-attack by adopting a proactive defence in depth approach to security.

"The default for these old systems is that users are given administrative rights, but removing admin privileges and dealing with the challenge areas with privilege management solutions has been found to mitigate 92% of critical Microsoft vulnerabilities, and can therefore significantly reduce the attack vector," says Avanessian. "Layering other defences on top of that, such as application whitelisting, will mitigate most targeted cyber-attacks."

Cost appears to be the main issue in moving away from XP, so how can organisations migrate from the platform in a cost-effective manner?

Galindo suggests organisations isolate the XP machines from the internet or the network if possible, then purchase low-cost replacements to fill in the functionality that is not achieved on XP.

"In some instances, it may be viable to run XP and any applications that need it in a virtual machine on a modern Windows or Mac computer, allowing the organisation to decommission the older hardware, whilst still allowing legacy software to work," he observes.

But Daniel Simmons, Technical Architect at Trustmarque, says that while replacing non-compatible applications or hardware with a new version is certainly the most reliable method, unfortunately, it's the most expensive as well.

If the application is mission-critical or otherwise strategic to operations, then if possible, this is the preferred route. Otherwise, there are a number of tools that can be used together to fix some compatibility problems when migrating operating systems, such as group policy and shims.

"This is the more cost-effective route, and might be the only option if the application vendor is no longer around. There are also a number of third-party tools, such as AppZero, that can help bridge compatibility issues and can be very useful in migration strategy," says Simmons.

Stuck on you

We can talk about moving away, but will organisations ever truly move away from XP and IE? Morrish thinks it will eventually happen but will take time. "Pockets of XP will remain, but proportionally they'll become fewer and more niche."

Galindo says that as long as Windows XP and older Internet Explorer versions keep working, there will be businesses out there that will carry on using them. "It wouldn't be a surprise if we still see XP in use at a business for at least the next five years," he says.

• Will Windows 10 be the catalyst for the remaining Windows XP users to upgrade?

Installing Windows or another alternative to Chrome OS on a Chromebook could be about to get a whole lot easier -- although it needs be compatible when it comes to the architecture (e.g. x86 or ARM).

In a blog post on Google+, Chromium guru François Beaufort revealed that the Chrome OS team is adding a debugging feature that will allow any Chromebook to boot from a USB key when started up in developer mode.

This means that you'll be able to install another OS by uploading its image to the key. Beaufort didn't specify which ones will be supported, but Windows and Linux would be a safe bet.

Easy Win(dows)

While it's not currently impossible to run something else alongside Chrome OS, it's something of a convoluted process that involves terminal commands and other actions that send get non-advanced users into a spin.

A USB key-based plug-and-play approach could go some way to simplifying that process and extend what you can do on Google's (mostly) affordable laptops.

Via: Techspot

• Windows or Linux would look mighty fine on one of these top Chromebooks

If your company is late to upgrading its OS, you are not alone. More than 20 percent of US companies are yet to upgrade from the aging Windows XP. But there are ways you can turn tardiness to an advantage.

It is something you have to do

Most of the risks of remaining on an unsupported Windows XP system have been widely discussed in the public sphere, as business systems are vulnerable to viruses, malware and hacks. And Microsoft's extension of anti-malware support until July 2015 won't be enough to protect your systems.

XP exploits will likely begin to emerge en masse within the coming months. The millions of computers on which XP is still installed are simply too tempting a target. What's more, on an old OS your business won't have access to the latest apps or software, with all the attendant frustrations and productivity issues this implies.

If you're already coming late to migration you have no choice; you need to do it now. Don't compound the problem by waiting any longer. With the latest developments on automated systems, OS migration can be undertaken much more quickly than you think.

Plan carefully

Plan your migration strategy in advance, clearly setting out your objectives, costs and time goals. What are the risks? Will migration impact users, and how? It might sound obvious, but it's incredible how many companies I see that make their migration strategy up as they go along, especially those who have never undertaken a large-scale migration before. As a result, timescales and KPIs tend to drift.

As well as making your migration efforts more credible within the business, this form of planning will also be incredibly helpful to you as an IT professional. I guarantee, while doing your research, you'll learn something about the process that probably would have tripped you up later on.

Audit and rationalise

Understand which applications are required and how critical they are; how much are they actually used and what does each application cost the business? Understand if applications can be upgraded or repackaged or if a new, similar application can be found. Make sure you involve users in decisions to keep or 'rationalise-out' certain applications though.

IT teams can frequently underplay this stage of the migration process and underestimate the time, complexity and overall challenge involved in rationalising apps effectively, and the cost of getting it wrong. It's often best to call in outside help to undertake your application audit, whether in the form of consulting or automated application rationalisation tools.

Run basic hygiene tests on your infrastructure

Migration of an OS is no time to discover you have fundamental infrastructure issues, but this is just the way it has played out for many. In fact, an OS rollout can cause companies to take the first good, hard look at their systems for a while. However, finding these faults during the migration can cause the process to draw out, adding further expense.

Make sure you perform some basic sanitation issues up-front. Ensure you have applied all the most current updates to all systems. Also, ensure your system management infrastructure has minimal failure points so it doesn't become a bottleneck. It will need to have the capacity to provide deployment services and desktop management in parallel.

Automate, automate, automate!

Many companies manually ship disks and USBs to departments, and/or eat up time with numerous costly desk-side visits in order to upgrade individual computers. This annoys users, disrupts work, and pulls IT staff away from important duties.

Ensuring rollouts occur effectively and efficiently is the quickest way to be seen as an IT hero within your organisation.

Given the technology that is available, aim for 100% 'Zero Touch Windows Migration'. 1E, for example, is typically able to achieve 100% Zero-Touch on 90% of a computer estate during a migration, with very limited interaction required on the remaining 10%. OS rollout is almost completely automated across the network with minimal desk-side visits from the IT department.

Get users involved

Migration is not about OS, but about people. Your job is to give staff the tools that will allow them to do their job effectively.

Your migration should also be totally non-disruptive. Encourage user buy-in to the upgrade process by letting them schedule when automated upgrades occur, and ensure you are clear about the benefits it will bring and when it needs to be done by.

After migration, consider setting up an app store, or another way of allowing users to request applications and upgrades in a way that lets them feel in control of the process and timing.

Learn from others' mistakes

If you're undertaking an ultra-late stage migration, one thing is strongly in your favour; the ability to see the mistakes everyone else has made, and avoid them.

Whether problems with application mapping or device drivers, you'll see some very common problems out there, often experience by IT professionals who, perhaps understandably, will never have undertaken a large-scale migration before.

Scour the forums, talk to other IT professionals, and consult with experts. At this point in time the industry will have a broader view of the issues involved. Turn this to maximum advantage.

Think about the next migration

If you're migrating from XP, trust us, your next OS isn't going survive 13 years like XP did! The rate at which Windows releases a new OS is speeding up. Many companies hadn't even got onto Windows 7 or 8 when Windows 9 was announced.

Think about how you can implement more robust, efficient processes for the rollout of OSs and rationalisation of applications. As before, the best solution is to automate your migration processes as much as possible, putting in place systems that will make your next migration that much smoother.

Ambareesh Kulkarni is Vice President of Professional Services at 1E.

All of the 35 NHS trusts in the UK are using Windows XP with only 14% currently using desktop virtualisation to tackle the issue of Windows XP migration, a FOI request from Citrix has found

The government purchased an extension of Windows XP support until April 8th 2015 for a whopping £5.5 million but while three quarters of trusts mentioned in the report were planning to migrate their last device in March 2015, one in seven didn't know when they would transition their last devices.

"Like the rest of the public sector, the NHS is under tremendous pressure to do more with less. The IT department is no exception," Jason Tooley, UK country manager at Citrix stated.

Windows XP is still very popular despite being 13 years old; it accounts for nearly one in every four desktop OS on the planet and is Microsoft's second most popular operating system behind Windows 7.

Ironically, Windows XP is likely to be used either in corporate environments (banks, POS, public sector) or on very old household PCs. The operating system reached its end-of-life beginning of April 2014.

• What to do with your old Windows XP PC

Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 recently and bolstered the new edition of the popular operating system with features end-users have been requesting from the company since it introduced Windows 8. From a business point of view, Windows 10 restores some familiar features, including the Start menu, but it is unlikely to act as a catalyst for a widespread business adoption as it doesn't have a 'hot new feature'.

Businesses have had ample time to move from Windows XP to Windows 7 or higher and that transition has proceeded quite well. Where there are still a number of Windows XP users out there, Windows 10 might seem like a great proposition for a system upgrade.

• Everything you need to know about Windows 10

However, those users on Windows 7 are likely to remain on Windows 7, mainly due to the lack of a major new feature, which would necessitate an upgrade. A portion of users will upgrade as they are early adopters, touchscreen users, and those who do like the post-Windows 8 look and feel.

Enterprise temptations

Some of the key areas that could tempt the larger organisations to move to Windows 10 include the improved and expanded security features via Enterprise Data Protection (EDP). This means that users' personal data stays personal and corporate data stays on the corporate side, similar to Samsung Knox. For Windows power users, the virtual desktops could offer a new and exciting way of getting work done, but it means that Microsoft would need to find pockets of those users within businesses to make a case for the feature.

• Hands on: Windows 10 review

Another interesting area of focus for future development is whether Windows 10 will become a cross-platform operating system. Will this be the one operating system that runs from users' desktop, tablet, phone and Xbox? The interface is supposed to adapt to your end point device. At the moment, it may be a niche, but Microsoft's mobile ecosystem is still growing, so it could be something that would work favourably for Microsoft.

For businesses, any software upgrade will always come down to the benefits an upgrade will deliver balanced against what the cost will be. And an organization-wide upgrade to Windows 10 could be costly.

Update issues

The final piece of the puzzle for businesses is the updates. No matter what the operating system, it will need to be kept up-to-date along with any third-party applications you are using. Companies need to apply relevant updates to keep their IT estates as risk-free as possible, and avoid any exploits that could lead to downtime or the loss of corporate – or customer – information.

In the consumer space, those who already run Windows 7 will most likely stick with it. Those on XP will most likely remain on XP as virtual desktops aren't relevant to their needs, and the refreshed interface with touch support will not change the applications they have used for years.

• Sergio Galindo is general manager, infrastructure business unit, for GFI Software.

With many companies still feeling the effects of the move from Windows XP, adoption of Windows 10 won't be immediate but the OS will serve a vital purpose in bridging the gap between the desktop and mobile working

The important thing to bear in mind with a desktop operating system upgrade is that it touches every user in an organisation, it's not isolated to one department or business function. In most large enterprise organisations, you will find a lot of task based, non-IT literate users who just need things to work – they want to get to applications easily and start using them to do their jobs, they don't want to spend time learning to navigate around a new user interface.

And where the impact of change is high, the effort and cost associated with training end users increases significantly. This is one reason why Windows 8 adoption has been slow.

Want to know all about Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 10?

Let's also not forget that many organisations have been focussed on migrating from Windows XP, which for most enterprises are multi-year programmes. Windows 7 had been chosen as the target platform for their XP eradication initiatives, it was either the only OS available to choose or it was too early in the Windows 8 release cycle for any organisation to place its bets on. Changing course to Windows 8 would have introduced more risk and cost with an in-flight transformation programme.

With many large organisations now comfortably on a supported desktop operating system we struggle to see many building, let alone justifying, a business case to make an immediate move to Windows 10 when it's released.

The investment to move from XP was large and the level of input required from the business significant, therefore there will be little appetite to make wholesale change so soon when there is no compelling event to do so until Windows 7 end of life in January 2020.

It is clear however that adopting an OS that provides a consistent user and management experience across devices will provide significant benefits, and Windows 10 is a great step forward to achieving that in the enterprise.

What we have seen with Windows 10 is recognition from Microsoft that the desktop is not dead, and the desktop will be around for years to support the task based, back-office workers who do not need touch or mobile devices to perform their jobs.

We will see a gradual adoption of Windows 10, initially with organisations identifying where the adoption of Windows 10 will enable different ways of working that enable competitive advantage, potentially through use of tablets and touch devices.

The unified experience makes Windows 10 a more viable proposition than before for touch devices in the enterprise. It will help accelerate adoption in areas where use case scenarios can also enable task based workers who will continue to have a desktop as a primary device to access very specific applications, such as a call centre worker, and this is where there is a great opportunity that Windows 10 can help unlock.

There will also be scenarios, such as in retail, where staff may have a back office and front office function, using a desktop in the back office and a tablet to enable better interaction with customers on a shop floor. An OS that works well across both types of devices will be incredibly useful for these types of scenarios, where consistency of experience is maintained, and so Windows 10 will be great addition.

• Paul Marsh is Head of Infrastructure Services at Avanade UK

Microsoft might have declared Windows XP officially dead in April 2014 but statistics pointing to its popularity (albeit on the wane) means that there's still plenty of demand for a service pack.

No surprise therefore that someone else seized the opportunity. a Greek-based developer called Harkaz has posted an unofficial, unsupported Service Pack, which has been christened Service Pack 4 (or SP4).

The build, currently in Beta 3, was finalised more than 10 weeks ago but has only been posted recently. Note that it is a cumulative update rollup that includes all official Windows XP updates for x86.

• End of support for Windows XP: what are the options?

Harkaz confirmed that the updates apply to most versions of Windows XP including MCE and Tablet PC. He added "equest-only hotfixes have been included. Currently, Microsoft .NET Frameworks 4.0, 3.5, 1.1 and 1.0 (Tablet PC only) are included in the Windows XP SP4 package. You can also scan for POSReady updates, because the POSReady trick has been included. In addition, all post-eol updates for .NET Framework 1.1, 3.5 and 4.0 until May 2014 have been included".

The 827MB file has yet to reach its "release candidate" status as Harkaz confirmed this week that he is working on the setup information files as well as the catalog file (spcmp.cat).

Microsoft has announced it'll end support for the Internet Explorer 8 web browser within 18 months, as it pushes users towards the most recent versions of the software.

According to recent figures from Net Applications, the browser still runs on 20 per cent of all PCs running a desktop operating system, while still accounting for around six per cent of all web traffic.

However, according to a blog post on Friday the firm said "only the most recent version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates."

That means users will still be able to make use of the 5 year-old browser, which launched alongside Windows 7, but won't receive any support from Microsoft.

IE 9 and IE 10 support also removed

The move will come into play on January 12 2016, with Microsoft keen to get everyone on to the latest version of its browser, currently Internet Explorer 11.

Versions 9 and 10 will also see reduced support. IE 9 will only be supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008, while IE 10 will only be supported on Windows Server 2012. On these platforms, IE 11 cannot be installed.

The death sentence for IE 8 follows the retirement of Windows XP, which finally reached the end of its supported life cycle in April this year.

• End of support for Windows XP: What are the options?

Via Zdnet

Almost one in five (18%) of small and midsized businesses worldwide are putting themselves at risk of a major security breach by remaining on Windows XP after its April 8 end-of-support date.

The finding comes from a study by antivirus vendor Bitdefender, which surveyed more than 5,000 companies in areas including retail, healthcare and education between March and May 2014.

• What to do with your old Windows XP PC

More than half (53%) of companies had upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 Professional, while only "a small percentage" said they are running a different version of Windows - such as Windows 7 Home or Windows 8.1.

Those that remain on the 12-year-old Windows XP, which some call the "operating system that never dies" due to its still-widespread use, are engaging in a security 'Russian roulette' as Microsoft no longer issues security updates or technical support to users, making them more susceptible to malware attacks that can steal confidential data.

Risky business

According to Bitdefender, one web marketing business had to deal with almost 800 million malware attacks during the three-month observation period.

Catalin Sosoi, Chief Security Strategist at Bitfdefender, said: "A few weeks after the end of support announcement, a new Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability turned into a permanent threat for XP users.

"That was until Microsoft issued a patch that was made available for Windows XP users as well. However, this was an exception that shouldn't make enterprises believe it will happen again, so the swift migration from XP is a must for all users."

• ...maybe it's time to give Linux a try?

On 8 April 2014, Microsoft ended support for Windows XP. This means that at this point, unless you have a limited (and expensive) extended support contract agreed with Microsoft, your business is no longer protected against emerging vulnerabilities in XP and potential exploits.

What's more, XP is officially an obsolete system for which fewer and fewer business critical applications will either be updated or supported. And staff members, who have probably been enjoying the benefits of Windows 7 at home for a few years, will think any business still running XP is living in the Stone Age.

If you are still running Windows XP then all of these security, functionality, and perception issues add up to one conclusion: You should migrate now, without delay.

Remaining on XP is a risk

Microsoft and a number of companies that help to enable optimised IT environments, (including 1E), have been vocal regarding the end of XP over the past few years. Despite this around a quarter of businesses remain on XP.

Essentially XP has always worked well up to now, it's a very stable platform and 'nothing's on fire yet'. Therefore many companies have chosen to wait and deal with problems only when they manifest themselves.

However, if your business is still running XP, it's likely already costing you money in terms of lost productivity. For example, you will still have to accommodate using old versions of programs and file formats that can run on XP. From this point of view, it is more time-efficient to upgrade to a newer version of Windows.

As far as security goes, just because you haven't seen any emergencies on XP yet, it doesn't mean they're not going to happen. And when they do, it could already be too late; your business data may have been compromised before you can even take action. Over the coming months it would not be surprising to see stories begin to emerge about company data that has been hacked in this way.

It is at this point companies will be thrown into 'panic mode', and will look for the fastest-possible way to get their systems to a newer version of Windows. However, don't panic when the worst happens, as there is still time to ensure a well-managed migration and mitigate the risks before your business is seriously impacted.

Adopt an automated migration approach

If there is one advantage to arriving so late to the migration party, it is that you can benefit from the long-view on how other companies have fared.

Over the past couple of years many large companies have embarked on major manual upgrade programmes, only to see their costs and timescales spiral out of control. Businesses have found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of creating an application inventory for an XP migration, and then by the amount of time consumed by desk-side visits.

Put simply, the fastest way to move away from XP at this late stage is to ensure that your migration process is automated.

The most effective approach is to fully automate the process for as many machines as possible. Ideally, installations will be completed in a non-disruptive way, with PCs either powering-up overnight to apply upgrades, or with users dictating when they want their migration to take place at their own convenience.

The overall cost of automated migration should always be significantly lower than those more 'manual' approaches. Gartner once estimated the cost of migrating from XP to Windows 7 or 8 to be somewhere between $1,205 and $2,069 per PC, today with full automation, we have seen it cost as little as $8.50 per machine.

Requirements for Zero-Touch Migration

It terms of the simplest practicalities, once the decision has been made to undertake an automated, Zero-Touch migration, businesses need to ensure a few necessary elements are in place.

These include an installation of Microsoft SCCM, the ability to map new applications during the upgrade to the new image (so that intelligent decisions can be made over which apps can be kept and which can be rationalised), and empowering your end users to be part of the migration process (giving them the capability to schedule their own migration) which means you can minimise impact on your network too.

Time to move!

At this late stage, businesses need to be realistic: If they're only starting to migrate now they cannot afford to spare the extra few months required by manual migration processes. Past the End of XP, Zero-Touch migration is the only viable option for a maximum-speed migration.

And don't forget you'll be doing this again, and soon, as Microsoft accelerates the speed of releasing its OS to market. Windows 9 is just round the corner (2015) and it's widely speculated that Windows 10 will follow on its heels. By adopting a Zero-Touch approach to migration you can protect your business while making massive savings in operational costs.

If you've been kept up restless nights waiting for the return of something resembling the classic Start menu for the modern version of Windows, we're sorry to dampen your spirits even further.

ZDNet has word Microsoft may not introduce a more functional Start menu with the forthcoming Windows 8.1 Update 2, which is widely expected to arrive in August or September.

According to reliable insider sources close to Redmond, the team charting a course for the future of Windows decided to hold off in favor of resurrecting the Start menu in the next major version of the operating system.

Codenamed "Threshold," that big update is expected to see an April 2015 release and is commonly being referred to as Windows 9, although Microsoft apparently has yet to firmly commit to that name.

Same as it ever was?

The Microsoft insiders were unclear as to the reason for the delay, though it may be because the revamped Start menu simply isn't ready for primetime or some other internal rationale.

Either way, the longtime Windows faithful may wind up being disappointed when the feature does arrive, given that it apparently won't be a faithful copy of what Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users were accustomed to.

Microsoft guru Mary Jo Foley describes the Windows 8.1 Start menu as offering "some familiarity," but claims it will also "integrate Windows 8's Metro-style Start screen concept" in some as-yet-unknown way.

Microsoft Executive Vice President Terry Myerson showed off an early version of the new and improved Start menu during the company's Build developer conference in April, where he announced it would arrive as part of "next iteration" of Windows 8.

• Speaking of Microsoft, check out our full review of the Xbox One!

Updated: Graham Cluley has provided with more background details regarding how the data in his blog has been analysed. His spokesperson told TechRadar Pro that "there was an increase in computers cleaned from malware (CCM) in the 4th quarter of 2013. This increase was predominately due to a new detection added to Microsoft's security products for a threat known as Rotbrow. Rotbrow is a threat that uses deceptive tactics instead of software vulnerabilities to trick its victims into installing malware. Rotbrow was more prevalent on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, likely for monetization purposes (e.g. Click Fraud, etc). It is important to note that the rise in computers cleaned is not an indication of the operating systems security effectiveness. Deceptive tactics can trick anyone. Detections of Rotbrow significantly decreased after December 2013 once systems were cleaned and we expect the CCM infection rate to return to more typical levels in subsequent quarters as the Malicious Software Removal Tool and other security products work to clean the remaining backlog of old Rotbrow infections."

Windows XP is past its sell-by date, but Microsoft has warned that its comparatively newer operating systems Windows Vista and Windows 7 are more at risk of malware infections.

That's according to the software giant's latest Security Intelligence Report, which shows an increased rate of infection for Vista, at 3.24 percent. Windows 7 is lower at 2.59 per cent, compared to 2.42 per cent for XP.

Unsurprisingly, Windows 8 and 8.1 have the lowest infection rates of 1.73 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively, arguably because they aren't as popular as their predecessors and therefore present a less lucrative market for the shady hacker underworld.

The figures have been normalised to reflect different numbers of computers running each operating system.

Misleading

Despite the stark warning, security experts think the figures are somewhat misleading. Speaking to The Independent, security researcher Graham Cluley warned that Windows XP is still less secure than newer versions.

He pointed out that the numbers Microsoft has come up with cover a time when Windows XP was still receiving updates, and was thus more secure.

He also suggested that the popularity of newer versions is partly to blame for the increased threats, as those versions would naturally be used more often to access the internet.

Microsoft ended security support for Windows XP in April. This week's Patch Tuesday will be the first time where vulnerabilities and bugs are pointed out in the ageing OS, but not fixed, making XP a sitting duck for cyber criminals.

• End of support for Windows XP: what are the options?

Microsoft recently waved goodbye to the most popular version of Windows ever, but a nasty security flaw lurking inside the company's web browser is forcing a quick fix, even for those too stubborn to upgrade to the latest OS.

Microsoft has announced the release of a new security update that addresses a newly uncovered flaw with the Internet Explorer web browser first disclosed by Redmond last weekend.

The exploit made headlines earlier this week because it affected not only newer operating system versions, but also Windows XP, which Microsoft officially put out to pasture April 8.

Microsoft Group Manager of Response Communications Dustin Childs claimed security updates will be automatically installed for "the majority of customers," but a manual download is also available for users who haven't yet enabled Automatic Update.

Just this once?

Released at 10 a.m. PST Thursday, the so-called "out-of-band" update also applies to Windows XP, despite Microsoft having now disowned the nearly 13-year-old OS.

"We have made the decision to issue a security update for Windows XP users. Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, and we continue to encourage customers to migrate to a modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or 8.1," Childs elaborated.

Childs also encouraged Windows customers to upgrade to the latest version of the popular web browser, currently Internet Explorer 11.

Microsoft will host a live webcast Friday, May 2 at 11 a.m. PST to discuss today's security bulletin, which presumably will include yet another reminder for Windows XP holdouts to let go of the past; registration for that event is now open to all.

• Microsoft gets its game on in our expansive Xbox One review!