As Windows XP is just 2 months of its death bed, Microsoft is crying out for help of those who may have already abandoned the aging operating system to help their friends and family migrate to newer operating systems.
According to January statistics, as many as 29 percent of systems are still running Windows XP and users running legacy apps may still continue to use the dying operating system as they have nowhere to go as newer operating systems won’t support their applications. These users won’t be able to look up to Microsoft for their security needs past the cutoff date and they are on their own.
In a bid to get these 29 percent users to jump ship and get onboard safer grounds, Microsoft is seemingly crying out for help of those who have already migrated. Microsoft senior marketing communications manager Brandon LeBlanc revealed through a blog post that the company has created a special page explaining what ‘end of support’ means to all those who are still using Windows XP.
“…we need your help spreading the word to ensure people are safe and secure on modern up-to-date PCs”, wrote LeBlanc in a blog post.
“As a reader of this blog, it’s unlikely you are running Windows XP on your PC. However, you may know someone who is and have even served as their tech support. To help, we have created a special page on Windows.com that explains what “end of support” means for people still on Windows XP and their options to stay protected after support ends on April 8th”, he added.
Listing out steps that aim to guide people through the migration process, LeBlanc notes that users should first check if their existing systems are compatible with Windows 8.1 and if so they should buy, download and install the latest Windows operating system. LeBlanc is recommending users to buy a new PC whose Windows XP systems are not powerful enough system to support Windows 8.1.
The recommendation also lists backup as one major step in the upgrade and migration process and for this LeBlanc advises users to use Microsoft SkyDrive (now OneDrive). But there is a limitation as users don’t have a client that is compatible with Windows XP, so backing up over the cloud might turn out to be a time consuming process.
Users aren’t impressed with the write-up from LeBlanc and many have claimed it to be a sales pitch rather than a sincere effort to help out the last stubborn lot.
