Windows XP Blog: Dead OS Walking
On August 24th 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP. A little over 12 years later, the “enhanced” user ‘eXPerience’ of XP is coming to an end or at least Microsoft’s support for it anyway. The bell officially tolls for full XP Support on April 8th 2014, meaning that from that date onward, Microsoft will no longer provide software updates through ‘Windows Updates’.
Given Microsoft’s recent announcement of an extension of anti-malware support to July 2015, the executioner may need a couple of crashing blows to finally see XP off, however…. A warning to XP PC users that the life of XP will be well and truly hanging by a thread after the first, let alone the second. The extension of support will not fix security holes, provide patches, or protect against every attack and will still leave businesses reliant on XP, extremely vulnerable. In fact, the stay of execution is likely to create a false sense of security throughout businesses worldwide.
Most businesses have moved away from or have an upgrade path in place for the end of XP support; however, there are still thousands of companies out there with no plans in place ahead of this important milestone in time. The most worrying thing for companies without a plan in place is that this means no security updates to protect themselves from viruses and other malware which can steal business critical data. Without the vital security updates, hackers will target any vulnerability they can find in the OS or other code and with no patch fixes coming after April, XP’s armour will be ripped apart for hackers to tear at the flesh beneath. In addition, software companies who have created XP specific applications are unlikely to continue their patches, fixes and general support for a redundant OS. With the date of execution moving ever closer, an increasing number of companies are moving away from a traditional XP PC delivery method into either a virtual or decentralised infrastructure. With these platforms either in place, or being implemented before April then it begs the question ‘Why would you use a fully loaded Windows PC on the desktop when everything is in the back end?’ 10ZiG Technology’s Thin & Zero Clients provide the best accompaniment to these solutions for many reasons, including their lack of dependency on an OS. The desktops or applications will be provisioned and connected to in the back end, meaning that the 10ZiG devices are just pointed to the host server or platform that they reside on. For example, a company moving from Windows 7 to Windows 8 need not replace there 10ZiG Thin or Zero Client hardware, just point it at the new desktops hosted on their server. 10ZiG Thin and Zero Clients offer a vast array of benefits, helping to maximise the performance of the desktop or application delivery solution and also increasing its ROI. Heightened security, FREE centralised management, high level performance and power savings are all features that make 10ZiG Thin and Zero Clients the desktop device of choice. 10ZiG Thin and Zero Clients are developed for all of the latest VDI, cloud platform and application delivery solutions such as Citrix XenDesktop/ XenApp/VDI-in-a-Box, VMware Horizon View, Microsoft RDP, vWorkspace, Virtual Bridges, 2X and Red Hat. Supporting the feature sets of PCoIP, HDX and Remote FX, 10ZiG devices offer dual screen support as standard, optional wireless and with a choice of Windows Embedded 7, Windows Embedded 8, Linux or Zero Client builds. If you are interested in how 10ZiG Thin & Zero Clients can improve the performance and manageability of your desktop, then take advantage of our FREE 30-day evaluation units to see for yourself - http://www.10zig.eu/free-demo/ For more information then please contact us on +44 (0) 116 214 8650 or by emailing sales@10zig.eu.