That last Windows XP update was the last one, for real this time

By Derek Kessler
published

Remember how Microsoft said they were done supporting and updating Windows XP, and then they pushed out an update for Windows XP anyway? Yeah, that's not happening again.

In all fairness, Windows XP is still a relatively widely-used operating system and is also quite old, as far as software is concerned. And Microsoft also gave plenty of warning — years worth — that they were going to end support. They said that customers should just move on, with the popular Windows 7 and Windows 8 as worthy options for any upgrader. Or a new computer.

That said, the update that Microsoft issued for XP two weeks ago was for a critical "0-day" vulnerability in Internet Explorer, a vulnerability that could be traced all the way back to Internet Explorer 6 and still existed in version 11.

But that's it. No more. So says Microsoft:

If you're still on Windows XP, you won't receive any security or non-security updates through Windows Update or Microsoft Update. Support ended for Windows XP April 8. If you continue to use Windows XP without support, your computer will still likely work -- but it will become vulnerable to security risks and over time, its performance will be affected.

Unless you're a government agency that'd rather pay millions of dollars for continued XP support instead of upgrading your ancient computers.

But the rest of you are done.

Source: Microsoft

Derek Kessler
Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.

64 Comments
  • Cool tablet
  • I'd like that tablet...
  • Motion Computing M1400. Great piece of hardware, it's a pity Motion left that path after the LE1700...
  • Mine's the M1300, but yeah. Too bad it's apparently lost track of the OS. Made for a perfect photo when I turned it on for this, though. :D
  • haha, that is abit too coincedental :p and joking aside that was a pretty nifty machine about 12 years ago.
  • Ah indeed. Sorry, I only had the M1400, but looking again, it is indeed missing the fingerprint reader. Got it for cheap from the US (some DoD hospital auction, two for 99$ and shipping) about 6 years ago maybe. Still working to date, though the 40GB hard drive is barely enough for anything. Got it only cause it was the tablet used in Stargate Atlantis :D
  • I always wanted a Motion Computing tablet, that was the ultimate Windows tablet way before iPad and others even existed. The problem was Motion had those things ridiculously overpriced.  
  • Yes, the price was high, but so was the quality. Show me another tablet or laptop that has been qualified for IP55 (I think they only got 55, as they weren't submerge-resistant), military-grade magnesium-alloy cover, and specifically built to be used in dirty, hard-on-computing environments, and is cheaper.
  • You guys don't even seem to remember or ever seen a pocket PC that this is shit. I still have mine Dell X51! I'm so in love with it because of what I've managed to do with it! I've been able to use Skype watch YouTube and even play mp4 HD videos on it. It has UC Browser which is awesome. And I have an app that gives me the WP 7 UI slide to the right and all. It's AWESOME will send a pic soon. Update: Forgot to mention how I changed the buttons to do things. For example the left button used for recording I changed it rotate the screen so if I wanted landscape or portrait it was one button away. I managed make the device as updated as possible with being able to do things like this.
  • Eww - XP Tablet ¦b
  • Lots of computers at work still use XP...we're about to migrate most of the employees to win 7 though
  • Why can't tablets be like that today?
  • Hardware buttons are dated now. Apart from that, it looks solid.
  • +620
  • I personally wouldn't mind either the 4-way pad or even better, a jog dial on a modern tablet.  But I realize I'm in the minority. :D
  • What, 3.5 pounds, 1 inch thick, and slow as all hell (plus, no touch, if I'm remembering correctly)? ;) I mean, I loved my HP/Compaq TC1100 back in the day too, but it'd be terrible now.
  • Stylus is there though
  • With an integrated storage silo.
  • Umm.. We're living in the 21st century. Things change pretty fast ! That doesn't mean you can say that old things were useless. Because, if not for them, there wouldn't have been the surface even..
    (btw anyone who has ever seen the precursor of the touchpad on laptops ? I mean, the rotating ball next to the screen ? I saw a 15-17 years or so old laptop once, with that thingy. It was junk actually, pity i couldn't boot it and operate it)
  • 12.1-inch 768x1024 LCD display, Intel Centrino, 802.11b, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD Wacom stylus support, VGA and RJ-11 ports, all in a sleek magnesium chassis plastic body weighing in at an extremely portable 3.3lbs. Yeah, baby, yeah.
  • You're kidding me ? That's amazing really for such a thing. I didn't expect that much in a pre-tab era tablet ! (pun intended)
  • Back in 2004 this was a beast of a machine. So fast, so portable, so light, so very incredibly f-ing cool. Today, it's hilarious.
  • Its not hilarious.. Its just like a budget android tab stripped of some basic stuff like touchscreen (stylus is another thing) and a full OS without apps.
  • It really is.  Any Atom tablet will blow this out of the water performance-wise, while being ~2 pounds lighter, and having double its ORIGINAL battery life.  But if it's anything like my aforementioned TC1100, Derek would be lucky to get ten minutes out of a full charge these days.
  • and it wouldn't steal your data
  • Couldn't you just put another OS on the thing? That's a thing tablets now can't do!
  • I wonder if I could upgrade it to 8...
  • Try it :D I mean Windows 8.1 is working beautifully on my 6 year old laptop. It's more optimized than Windows 7
  • You could also install Linux, heck you could install Android on it !
  • I believe the Pentium M that this uses doesn't support a CPU feature that is necessary for Windows 8.1.  PAE, maybe.  I can't remember.  I tried it a while ago on my similarly ancient tablet.
  • I don't think so, I mean I have a centrino 1.6 GHz processor. And that processor is old yet is working with 8.1
  • jhoff80's right, Win8 requires PAE, which cannot be found in the M1300 or M1400's CPU. So it's a no-go ;(
  • Isn't that just for the 64 bit version? I thought W8 32 worked with anything compatable with Vista/W7.
  • I wish more people knew how truly smooth Windows 8.1 Pro runs! Windows "Blue update" so far very good! Most people upgraded from Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 SP1 and all the rest Windows 8.1 Update 1 is fantastic. Don't forget we have Windows 8.2 in November coming free to the people that bought Windows 8 & 8.1 treated like a service pack. Stand alone copies as well! Windows 8.2 to be in Surface 3 and Windows Phone 8.2 in Surface Lumia (aka Lumia 940) coming with a Snapdragon 805 in it.
  • Tried with 7 (by the time of 8, I switched to LE1700). It was a bit sluggish, but taking notes, using ArchiCAD, and especially using OneNote was quite fun. Pity that Win7 killed most of the drivers (no screen rotation, etc.)   On the LE1700, Win7 worked better than 8 for some reason. But after upgrading to 8.1, it was fine-ish.
  • My LE 1600 is still my favorite all time computer. If the battery wasn't shot, I'd still be rocking Win7 on it. I've got an SP2 and DVP8 now, and it's a shame the way they've degraded the tablet experience in WIn8. Without the floating Tablet Input Panel, it's almost not even worth having the stylus capability. I didn't have a keyboard for the Motion and I was able to use everything and be productive with just the stylus, Hell, the Samsung Q1 with a plastic stick for a stylus wasn't bad either. Bring back the floating TIP!
  • You might still be able to turn it on, unless I only saw that in one of the previews, but the metro keyboard has the same pen input just not floating
  • Floating was better though because you could move it, so it wasn't blocking a huge portion of the bottom of the screen.  Plus, the TIP used to resize as you filled it.
  • Indeed, but in return Win8 brought some extra tablet features with it (I'm in love with OneNote 2013 on my LE1700, it's just SO DAMN EASY TO USE). I miss the keyboard, but everything's faster than in Win7, and better.   (You can also "minimize" the keyboard, and it will float. Still too big on 1024x768, but it floats)
  • Don't get me wrong, I agree entirely that nearly everything is better in Windows 8 (including the onscreen keyboard by FAR) but the handwriting recognition part of the TIP is far worse.
  • Glad they are sticking to their guns. The 0-day fix was only fair setting as the vulnerability was across all OS'es and managed to somehow exist in all browser versions.
  • For what I've read, a lot of companies have moved on, to Linux,I don't know what to think
  • I don't understand why. To avoid having to pay for an upgrade every 12 years? smh
  • I doubt that. 
  • I understood that MS wanted to fix IE, seemed silly to pasture IE 6&7... They should have only fixed IE 8... c'est la vie ;)
  • Just went to 7 at work yesterday. We're on a rolling phase out that will be complete this year. Although some guys are ring fenced because app certification for 7 is late. End of an era... (and no ⤴ in Explorer either...)
  • For anyone that is still on XP and in need of a security tool to safeguard. EMET v4.1 from Microsoft is a excellent tool. https://www.windowscentral.com/e?link=https2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.co...
  • If only they stopped certifying core drivers for xp sooner & got @ least better vista driver support @ minimum
  • Hope this true
  • Well, for many reasons I still respect XP more than my 8.1. This OS was a legend, the base of all modern things we see today.
    #RESTinPEACE
  • Agreed, I can see why people, especially here, would advocate switching to 8 immediately, but c'mon. Window XP was fantastic and does not deserve to be degraded or bashed.
  • Windows 2000 Sucked
    Windows XP Awesome
    Windows Vista Sucked
    Windows 7 Awesome
    Windows 8 Sucked
    Windows 8.1 Awesome
    Windows 9 going to suck if the trend happens. love Windows 8.1 Pro so far....thank god boots to desktop mode & turn off metro UI option!.....Start menu not a big deal just save My PC link to task bar!
  • End of an era
  • Too skint to go for a new machine, and cant risk losing use of the office suite, and that alone is an £89 extra on top of a new PC. I will have to rock XP for a little longer.
  • I remember when XP came out there was all this hype about how terrible it was. Now listen to everyone lol
  • People don't like change...but then they see the beauty of it. That's what happens. C'est la vie, right? ;)
  • Time for them to release a "Windows XP Final" disc image for those of us who use VMs to do things like test backwards compatibility, so I can spin up a new XP VM from scratch without having to hit the Windows Update service at all.
  • Why would they do that? The point of ending support is to stop spending any time and effort on it, and to remove it from all QA test procedures.
  • maybe they use it for atm bank. Because they don't know the news.
  • Not to be rude...but good riddance! Death to Windows XP, dated April 2014!
  • Good on them. I was wondering when MS was finally going to put their foot down. XP is four versions old now and needs to be laid to rest
  • MS DOS... RUN.EXE :) ... Windows 8 for desktops it's mistake.
  • Funny, I just turned on my XP Dino this morning and got another update... Yes in addition to the is security patch from a couple weeks ago that was the " last one".. Thank you Microsoft
  • My employer, a bank, was one of those that still paid loads of money to continue XP support. We move at the speed of light! Perhaps MS should give us 20 years notice....and I'm sure we will still be late. :/ Posted via the WPC App for Android! on BlackBerry Z30