Microsoft to remind Windows XP users of pending end-of-support date, offers free data migration tool

[Shawn Knight]

Despite the fact that a sizable number of people still run Windows XP, Microsoft is preparing to discontinue general support for the aging operating system on April 8, 2014. And starting March 8, the Redmond-based company will remind XP Home and Professional users (that have been getting regular updates) of the pending date via a pop-up notification.

The notification will pop up on the 8th of every month until the user disables it (or upgrades to a newer OS). Said notification will also include a link to the XP End of Support website so users can learn more about what it means for them. Ticking a check mark box will ensure it isn’t shown again.

A recent survey from NetMarketShare found that XP commanded 29 percent of the Windows market share. That’s still a lot for an OS that was released more than 12 years ago, but why are people still clinging to a dated OS when better alternatives like Windows 7 exist?

Microsoft thinks they know why and have come up with a solution to encourage XP users to switch to something newer. Perhaps people simply don’t want to deal with the hassle of losing data and settings when they move to a new system. That seems like a plausible enough reason to me.

To alleviate these concerns, Microsoft is partnering with Laplink, a company that specializes in data migration software. Together, they are offering a data migration tool called PCmover Express for Windows XP free of charge. The software will transfer files, settings and profiles from XP to a newer operating system. It’ll be available later this week from windowsxp.com.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55869-microsoft-to-remind-windows-xp-users-of-pending-end-of-support-date-offers-free-data-migration-tool.html

 

[j05hh]

Windows Easy Transfer (WET) does the same thing and is also free. However is doesnt work with windows 8.1.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Windows Easy Transfer (WET) does the same thing and is also free. However is doesnt work with windows 8.1.

Blessing in disguise. Concerned that my provincial health system, hospitals and all, are still using XP and connect to the internet rather than a intranet. The entire Canadian Armed Forces spends $20 billion/year and just my province spends $17.1 billion/year and they can't find the cash to get to a reasonable secure OS?

 

[madboyv1]

Dear lord I'm gonna get a lot of phone calls, emails, and voice messages about this for the next month+ lol.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft thinks they know why...

That's too funny! Microsoft really doesn't have a clue. If they did, they wouldn't have waited until

And starting March 8, the Redmond-based company will remind XP Home and Professional users (that have been getting regular updates) of the pending date via a pop-up notification.

a mere one month prior to their 12 year old operating system that still commands 29 percent of the Windows market share before issuing this "Windows Update" to gently remind their users of this very important change. Did Microsoft not know until just now that 29 percent of their OS users are still running on XP, and that Microsoft was discontinuing their support on April 8th??? If they had a clue they would...

I would guess that the majority of home users who are still using Windows XP have not upgraded partly due to the cost of buying a newer version of Windows. Their current version of Windows is doing everything they need, so why should they upgrade? I work in the computer industry so I understand why they need to upgrade and why Microsoft is sunsetting XP, but I bet most users who are still running XP do not. I would also guess that another reason why folks have not upgraded is due to lack of knowledge on how to perform this task. As a computer geek, I provide PC support to most of my friends. Most of them are still running XP. They don't have a clue about how to upgrade their operating system. I will be doing it for them.

I think another stumbling block for Microsoft is their poor reputation particularly when it comes to their Windows operating system. They have become an "every other operating system" company. Windows 98 was good. Windows Millennium Edition was not. Windows XP was good. Windows Vista was not. Windows 7 was good. So far it appears that Windows 8 is not. This sort of a track record does not instill confidence in their users.

-DTR

 

[Guest]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

 

[Guest]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

Amen to that. If They want to force it then they should supply it to us FREE.

 

[penn919]

As I've been saying before, instead of expiring Wndows XP and alienating billions of users, microsoft should simply release XP source code and let the open source community develop and maintain the updates. The people who've kept XP up until this point probably don't have the money to upgrade and would microsoft rather they switch to linux? Think about it.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Hey Microsoft, we heard you now about 100x too many. Way to be drama queens!!!!! If I hear you again Im gonna format my Windows 7 installation and re-install Windows XP. In fact...you have already crossed the line:
FORMAT C;\

 

[treetops]

My dad works for a restaurant chain owned by a individual who has 13 or so of these restaurants, every one of these restaurants has a dell dimension 2400 computer. These ancient computers do not meet the min requ for windows 7 and work just fine for the daily tasks the business demands under windows xp.

My dad is in charge of 5 restaurants, he is worried about xp losing support and in the profit margin driven restaurant business, buying all new computers and spending the money to pay someone to port all their old data over is a big investment.

Or at least the owner would have you believe.

A lot of people just use their computers to surf the web and don't even own a computer capable of running windows 7. Basically microsoft is trying to force sales by letting xp rot. I know they cannot support xp forever, heck even offering a xp "upgrade" for continued support would b nice.

 

[Guest]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

How about you go get a job, or maybe a better job? You could also try organizing your finances better to allow you the revenue to afford the tech you require.

Life is not a charity.

 

[Camikazi]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

They aren't forcing you to upgrade, they are moving on from a very old OS and letting you know it will no longer be supported. It if up to you if you want to keep running XP but you will not be able to blame them if a vulnerability shows up later on that gives hackers access to your computer. Nothing lasts forever you need to make the choice whether you will upgrade or stay but staying has risks just like upgrading has a price.

 

[Guest]

I want to upgrade my XP OS by XP OS

 

[Guest]

Microsoft give free migtool and new hardware?

 

[smvim]

As I've been saying before, instead of expiring Wndows XP and alienating billions of users, microsoft should simply release XP source code and let the open source community develop and maintain the updates. The people who've kept XP up until this point probably don't have the money to upgrade and would microsoft rather they switch to linux? Think about it.

Open sourcing something like WinXP would in no way be a simple endeavor. In the billions of lines of code that make up just the original WinXP itself, there's a convoluted mix of numerous blocks of millions of lines of code that are completely proprietary to Microsoft, and that's just phrasing in a trivial manner. The amount of time and resources would involve years, plus the legal issues to sort through are mind boggling. Even switching a basic application from proprietary to Open Source is a complicated issue involving any number of licensing hurdles, I can't imagine something like WinXP ever going through something like that.

 

[Guest]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

They aren't forcing you to upgrade, they are moving on from a very old OS and letting you know it will no longer be supported. It if up to you if you want to keep running XP but you will not be able to blame them if a vulnerability shows up later on that gives hackers access to your computer. Nothing lasts forever you need to make the choice whether you will upgrade or stay but staying has risks just like upgrading has a price.

Yeah right - and when in the past has Microsoft ever accepted that their OS vulnerability was the problem? Blaming them never changed anything - they just made daily patches a way of life - my XP takes up so much space it is a few times bigger than my older hard drive... No wonder they want people to store data in the cloud - the OS needs the whole hard drive. I just want the OS to be the link between whatever programs I use and the hardware - I do not want the OS to try and "be" my computer. Especially not when it looks like a Tetris game...

 

[Red87]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

They aren't forcing you to upgrade, they are moving on from a very old OS and letting you know it will no longer be supported. It if up to you if you want to keep running XP but you will not be able to blame them if a vulnerability shows up later on that gives hackers access to your computer. Nothing lasts forever you need to make the choice whether you will upgrade or stay but staying has risks just like upgrading has a price.

Yeah right - and when in the past has Microsoft ever accepted that their OS vulnerability was the problem? Blaming them never changed anything - they just made daily patches a way of life - my XP takes up so much space it is a few times bigger than my older hard drive... No wonder they want people to store data in the cloud - the OS needs the whole hard drive. I just want the OS to be the link between whatever programs I use and the hardware - I do not want the OS to try and "be" my computer. Especially not when it looks like a Tetris game...

Then upgrade? Hard drives now days are pretty cheap. 60$ is going to get you 1TB and no current OS is going to come close to that. Everything has increased in size, there's been 12 years+ of patches onto XP. You can't expect them to keep support for everything forever. If you can't be arsed to pay for an OS to upgrade, there's always Linux.

 

[captaincranky]

I can't afford to buy new computers, Microsoft! You want to help? How about giving me money to buy your stuff along with the hardware required for running it at maximum performance (just as my old stuff currently does with XP)?

How about you go get a job, or maybe a better job? You could also try organizing your finances better to allow you the revenue to afford the tech you require.

Dude, you have to know trying to reason with the other guest above is like talking to a cantaloupe. Or what was that nonsense Tom Hanks was talking to, in that movie that got an award, which I didn't even bother to rent, and that the name of which escapes me........(or not)....

Life is not a charity.

Well, actually it is. It's just not polite to call it that though.

The correct term is, "social entitlement"!

Now do you see how that makes his attitude OK?. He needn't "ask for, or accept charity", he's "entitled to it"! Now why don't you get a job, with the Fed, preferably in HSS? That way you'll be able to print them thar checks for him!

(You do understand that was satire, right)?

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

If Win 7 or 8 supported my $1,800 investment in legacy (USB/SCSI) slide & document scanner hardware/software that I am now forced to run in Windows XP mode I would gladly upgrade to whatever they wanted me to.....

 

[amstech]

In a locked down business environment and/or within a domain, XP machines are protected by that environments rules and much stronger firewall only devices, like our Barracuda filters here at the Hospital.
While updates for security and compatibility are a concern, its not really a big deal for workstations that don't require Internet and only need to run in-house software. Even after they kill support you will have penny pinching and non-for-profit business's running XP for as long as possible.
If Microsoft were smart about supply and demand (which they aren't, hence their plummeting OS sales quarter after quarter) they would offer a great deal for upgrading but that can be a problem as well. Many business skipped over Vista so older machines have several years of wear and older hardware specs that may not run 7 at all, or very well.
Are only candidates for this our are HP DX2400's that have E2160's and even they are 5+ years old.

 

[treetops]

How long after they stop supporting xp will it be incredibly unsafe to connect to a xp computer to the internet?

 

[captaincranky]

How long after they stop supporting xp will it be incredibly unsafe to connect to a xp computer to the internet?

It might depend on how long aftermarket publishers of security software, continue to provide it.

Personally, (and admittedly with reservations about logging in to banking sites & such), I find XP SP2 and AVG Free make me feel pretty darn secure. Even in the case of, "yeah tho I walk through the, "Valley of Deadly Erotic Art", I will fear no evil"....(y)

 

[Raoul Duke]

Compared to what a lot of software costs, the cost of an OS is actually quite reasonable considering the use you get out of it compared to the installed software. Look at what a rip-off MS Office is by comparison or Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro, I mention these only because I use them and thus know the price.

 

[Railman]

Compared to what a lot of software costs, the cost of an OS is actually quite reasonable considering the use you get out of it compared to the installed software. Look at what a rip-off MS Office is by comparison or Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro, I mention these only because I use them and thus know the price.

I could not agree more. On my latest build I will not be purchasing MS Office as the version with Access is just a prohibitive price. Luckily my work laptop has Access.

 

[cliffordcooley]

How long after they stop supporting xp will it be incredibly unsafe to connect to a xp computer to the internet?

It is unsafe to connect any computer regardless of OS to the Internet. Don't believe me, go talk to the guys in the Mal-ware subforum. Dropping support for XP will only make it more important to watch how you use the Internet, while on an XP machine.