As Microsoft has been reminding its customers for many months,
support for its Windows XP operating system ends on April 8. While your
Windows XP computer will continue to run, Microsoft will not be
providing security updates and other patches to keep the system safer
from viruses and other malware attacks. The company also announced that
it would not be providing an XP-compatible version of its Microsoft
Security Essentials software on its site, either.
Microsoft
has two suggestions for those still using Windows XP: upgrade the
operating system or buy a new PC. The system requirements for Windows
8.1, the latest operating system, may be a little high for older
hardware.
You need a machine with at least a
1-gigahertz processor, 1 gigabyte of memory, 16 gigabytes of hard drive
space and a graphics card compatible with DirectX9 and the Windows
Display Driver Model software.
Microsoft's
site has a tutorial on potentially upgrading from Windows XP, including
links to an upgrade assistant program that checks your current machine
to see if it can run Windows 8.1. You can check to see if your older
programs work on Windows 8.1 on the Compatibility Center page.
If
neither of these options sounds appealing or possible, you have other
choices. You can continue on with Windows XP with third-party security
software, although you may find fewer sites, services and programs that
continue to work with an operating system that was first released in
2001.
Although it may take some heavy lifting
and expertise, some people have found extended life for old hardware by
installing the open-source Linux operating system, which tends to have
less-intensive system requirements than other operating systems.
