SINGAPORE — With only about six months to go before Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP, the company today (Oct 9) said that more than 600,000 PCs in Singapore are still running the 11-year-old operating system.
Urging consumers and businesses to upgrade to a newer OS, such as Windows 7 or 8, Mr John Fernandes, Chief Marketing Operations Officer, Microsoft Singapore said: “With the typical deployment times for upgrades spanning more than six months for mid-sized businesses, we are really concerned that some companies in Singapore are cutting it too close to the end of service date.”
From April 8 next year, Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates, non-security related fixes, online technical content updates or phone technical assistance for Windows XP, leaving computers still using the operating system vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Windows XP is no longer capable of handling sophisticated cyber-attacks and demands for more data privacy and productivity, said Microsoft. Windows XP with SP3 is up to 56.5 times more vulnerable than Windows RTMi, according to its Security Intelligence Report that was released in April.
Industry analysts also advised businesses to upgrade from Windows XP.
“Time is running out,” says Mr Handoko Andi, Manager of Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific. “In order to make sure that PCs continue to be securely supported and operational, both consumers and businesses alike should be migrating to newer versions of the operating system now, given the termination of extended support for Windows XP in just six months’ time.”
Mr Charlie Dai, Principal Consulting Analyst, Enterprise Architecture, Forrester Research, wrote in a blog post: “Very few companies have put Windows migration on its IT evolution roadmap. However, I believe the time is now for IT professionals to seriously consider putting Windows upgrade into the IT road map for the next 6 months as Windows XP and the pirated OS won’t be viable much longer to support your business.”
He added: “We believe that Windows will continue to be a leading operating system as the base experience for IT professionals in 90 per cent of companies globally is still on Windows. The upcoming availability of Windows 8.1 also provides substantial reasons for companies to migrate.”
For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-sg/Pages/xp-eos.aspx.
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