Businesses flagging as Windows XP enters its final year

Businesses are leaving it too late to prepare for a migration from Windows XP before Microsoft pulls support in a year's time, according to research from a software management company.

XP has proven to be the most durable version of Windows ever, still running on 39% of desktops 11 years after its launch, according to Netmarketshare.

Mainstream support for the operating system ended in 2009, with extended support - including critical security updates - set to expire on 8 April 2014.
Despite the looming deadline, research from migration specialists Camwood found that the majority of companies have failed to start the move. "Only 42% of companies have started to migrate, despite Microsoft’s warning of a recommended 18-30 month window for successful migration away from XP," the company warned after questioning 250 company directors.

The company also found that many businesses planned to continue running XP after the deadline, when security updates will be switched off. "Perhaps most worryingly, nearly one in five IT decision makers currently running XP plan to continue using Windows XP after the end of support, putting their business at risk of cyber attacks, security breaches, theft and exploitation following the withdrawal of free security patching," Camwood said.

Other specialists agree that time is short. "Organisations that are not yet off the starting blocks or only a little way down the track are highly unlikely to complete before the Microsoft deadline," said Sumir Karayi, CEO at IT consultant 1E.

"Whether the delay is because they misunderstood the sheer scale of the project, or that they are coming across myriad technical hurdles – from application reinstallation to gotchas around device drivers – which they never encountered before, it means they cannot confidently predict when they will finish the project or how much it will cost them."

Microsoft says that although Windows XP will continue to run after support comes to an end, there are security risks as the company will no longer provide security fixes, leaving PCs vulnerable to "harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, which can steal your personal information".

A mixture of XP Pro SP3 and Win 7. Everyone got upgraded to al least IE8 in order to run the new intranet recently.
As a regulated workplace new software rollouts in the labs, including the OS, have to be validated and this is very much a non-trivial task.
Some of our older hardware is still using Win 95 due to age and validation issues.