Microsoft Support Ends Soon For Vista (no SP's), XP (SP2* and under) & 2000

Ex_Brit

Ex_Brit

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Microsoft Support for Windows Vista (with no service packs installed) ends on April 13, 2010, while support for Windows XP (without Service Pack 3 installed) ends on July 13, 2010. Windows 2000 support will end on July 13, 2010 as well.

* There is no Service Pack 3 for the 64-bit version of Windows XP. If you're running the 64-bit version of Windows XP with SP2, you have the latest service pack and will continue to be eligible for support and receive updates until April 8, 2014.

What Does It Mean When Support for My Operating System Ends?

If you are still running a version of Windows where support has ended, it means that version of Windows will no longer receive any updates from the Windows Update or Microsoft Update site. These updates are generally provided for security reasons to help protect the PC from harmful viruses, spyware, malware, and other malicious software. Windows Update also provides new drivers for your hardware that can improve the reliability of Windows.

Hackers love to take a security vulnerability in Windows and exploit it to their advantage. So, if a vulnerability is found in Windows XP or Windows Vista and you are not running the latest service pack, you will not be protected and will be at risk.

How Can I Tell What Service Pack is Installed?

Follow these steps to discover what Service Pack is installed:

1) Click on the Start Button
2) Right-click on either My Computer or Computer (depending on your Windows version)
3) Click on Properties


(Courtesy of PCHell.com)
 
Yes indeed and is available online apparently - through torrents etc. However, I don't recommend trying that as you don't know the source.
 
Who can really say? From what I read it's really just the accumulated updates that everyone should already have anyway, so great for someone reinstalling a system I suppose, in that they can install all the updates at once.
But I guess we wont know until it's actually released.
It seems a bit soon for a service pack to me, but Microsoft knows best I suppose. (I hope..!!)
 
Reminder.....tomorrow is the deadline for XP SP2 and under and Win 2K......see my 1st post.

Sorry I don't care what your argument is, you have NO excuse not to be up to date and if you are using an obsolete OS except for novelty purposes, shame on you!
 
So without SP2 we won't be able to update to SP2 and than to SP3 to continue support (say a re-install is needed)? Well at least I hope the service packs well remain on download center. I'm not personally using XP anymore (just got Ubuntu finally installed :smile:) but I still know a lot of people that do.
 
What this means in simple really. If a person has an issue with their PC and contacts Microsoft for support, they will ask to verify some information. 1 Piece of information will be what SP the system is running. If the person says SP2, Microsoft will advise them to update to SP3. That is all will be suggested. If this person was on the forums (Microsoft Answers) and tried to get support the topic will have the same result. Update to SP3 to get support. If that person doesnt comply, they will not be helped and be told that SP2 is no longer supported and that they must update to get support.

So if a person has to reinstall, they must update fully to SP3. Windows Update will still reflect SP2 as an update if required. But they must install SP3 after they install SP2.
 
By the way, for the very few adventurous people who have XP x64, SP2 was the final service pack for x64 so it IS supported - in that case only.
 
XP X64 will be supported as long as Server 2K3 is. XP X64 is built off of it and will stay in support as long as it is. :wink:
 
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