Windows XP to Exit Extended Support

On Apr. 8, 2014, Windows XP, Office 2003, and several other products still deployed in many organizations will leave Extended support. Future security vulnerabilities discovered in these product versions will likely remain unpatched, and other forms of product support from Microsoft will be limited. Customers who have not yet begun planning and executing migrations away from these versions should do so in order to minimize the potential of vulnerabilities to their IT infrastructure.

Migration Away from Windows XP Recommended

Microsoft’s support policies and practices and Windows XP’s place within the life cycle have several implications for customers. Customers should assume that after Extended support ends, Microsoft will not provide security updates for newly discovered vulnerabilities in Windows XP or Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 on that OS. Windows XP and versions of Internet Explorer available for it have continued to receive security hotfixes through the past year, indicating that there are likely vulnerabilities yet to be discovered, and as a result, there will be future exploits of the OS and its integrated browser. This could leave critical infrastructure systems and other Internet-connected instances of Windows XP at significantly higher risk for exploitation than systems running current versions of Windows.