[SALMAN]

Half of all corporate PCs running XP could be stuck on soon-to-be-obsolete SP2, according to security firm Qualys. Microsoft will officially retire Windows XP SP2 on July 13. According to security risk and compliance management provider Qualys, 50 per cent of the several hundred thousand PCs it monitors for its clients are still running Windows XP SP2.
But XP SP2’s imminent death would not be alone. On July 13th, all releases of Windows 2000 also expired, as the operating system version would have reached the end of the Extended support phase. While XP users will still be able to continue receiving support, provided that they upgrade to SP3, the same is not valid for Windows 2000 customers, who will have a dead platform on their hands.

“This move will ensure those customers continue to receive security updates. Of note:

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 will no longer be supported after July 13, 2010. Customers are encouraged to upgrade to Service Pack 3 or to Windows 7 as soon as possible.
• Extended support for Windows 2000 ended on July 13, 2010. After that time, Microsoft will no longer provide security or any other updates for Windows 2000,” he added.

Microsoft started warning customers of XP SP2′s looming retirement last February, and has been repeating that warning every month in its Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog on Patch Tuesday, the regularly-scheduled second-Tuesday-of-the-month security update release day. But not every user reads the MSRC blog.

Windows XP SP3 will exit all support in April 2014; to receive vulnerability fixes, users must update to that service pack by July.


Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Final is available for download here
Another Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here .here
Microsoft Windows 7 90-Day Eval VHD is available for download

 

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Last edited by SALMAN; 12-08-2010 at 03:13 AM..