Microsoft ends support for Windows XP service pack 2 tomorrow

XP users must apply service pack 3 which Microsoft says has extended support until April 2014

Firms running Windows XP with service pack two (SP2) will no longer get security updates or non-security hotfixes (patches) for that operating system (OS) configuration after tomorrow.

Microsoft has been advising customers to migrate to the latest supported service pack or product before the 13 July deadline.

Microsoft's UK Windows product manager Ian Moulster says firms should move to service pack 3 or another supported product which is in accordance with the company's life cycle policy. This offers five years of mainstream support and five years of extended support.

Mainstream support means non-security hotfixes and security updates are provided for five years. Extended support means that OS users get security updates for five years but must be on a supported service pack.

XP users must apply service pack 3 which Microsoft says has extended support until April 2014.

The other option for firms thinking of migrating from Windows XP would be to roll out Windows Vista with SP1 or SP2 applied, or skip that OS release entirely and move straight to Windows 7. Vista with no service packs applied reached the end of its mainstream support on 13 April.

Applying service pack 3 to firms' current XP SP2 systems is the easiest option, although the software giant has been trying to persuade users to move to Windows 7, launched last year, by boasting of its increased security and functionality.

Server operating systems

Support for the Windows 2000 operating systems, the client-side Windows 2000 Professional and server-side Windows 2000 Server will also cease tomorrow.

Microsoft also said on its web site that assisted support will no longer be available for Windows 2000.

This means that in addition to no new security updates or non-security hotfixes, there will be no free or paid assisted support options, options to engage Microsoft’s product development resources or updates to online content such as knowledge-based articles.

Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 OSes will also transition from mainstream support to extended support and will be available until July 2015.

The firms most likely to be using Windows 2000 Server OSes are those running legacy applications on the OS, according to Microsoft's UK windows server product manager Gareth Hall.

He also explained that migrating the legacy application to a Windows Server 2000 virtual machine running under a supported server OS would provide another layer of abstraction which would make it a little more secure, but that the lack of any support would be a big problems for firms.

W3Counter, a free, hosted analytics web site, gave a breakdown of OS usage for May 2010, showing XP OS usage at 50 per cent, Vista at 17.6 per cent, Windows 7 at 14.3 per cent, Windows 2000 at 0.34 per cent and Windows Server 2003 at 0.89 per cent.