Several reports marked yesterday (09 April) as the first day of the last year for Windows XP.

One such:

Windows XP death watch begins

> Marshall Honorof , TechNewsDaily
> 09 April 2013

> If you, or your workplace, are still using Windows XP, it's time to move on.

> Microsoft will officially end support for the 2001-vintage platform on April 8 of next year, 2014.

> That means no more service packs, no more updates and, most importantly, no more security patches.

> ...

Those hoping to squeeze a few more years of use out of the OS may want to mark a calendar on this "new year" for WinXP, although history for others that have "died" suggest that the appropriate date for releasing the final obituaries may be a little less clear than just an X on the wall.

This report, and other recent ones, indicate that WinXP is still in use on "about a third" of all Windows computers. Recollection is that the percentage for WinXP is a litttle below the record when the last gasp of Win98SE was claimed, but that was because "98" was very widely used in countries where export/import restrictions ("ex/im rules") made it difficult for large numbers of users to obtain and install legal copies of newer systems, so several stages of "reduced support" continued to be announced well after that OS was "officially dead."

So far as has been reported, there's no similar incentive for stretching out the death throes for WinXP.

Nothing really prevents anyone from continuing to use WinXP after the end of support, although a decline in security is likely once patches/updates cease.

The most likely case for marching onward with WinXP is that all later versions generally require significantly "better machines" to run successfully, with Vista and Win8 being reported as the "worst yet resource hogs." Win7 works better on newer machines, but is "slightly less demanding." Many people still running WinXP as their primary OS likely will want new machines to run anything newer when they decide to move on. On the plus side, there are lots of "better" machines capable of running the newer OS versions that are significantly cheaper than what your WinXP probably cost you when it was new(?).

A complicating factor in deciding when to switch is that WinXP existed (exists?) in at least five versions, with the basic XP-Home considered by most reviewers to be "truly mediocre" but with XP-Pro and XP-Multimedia still rated very close to newer ones for usability and support (maybe because Microsoft support has been largely undetectable - IMO - for some of the newer ones???). The "still in use" numbers don't report which versions are still going.

Now you know the "official date" - guaranteed good until the next announcement - - - maybe.

John