Users urged off XP in last-ditch migration effort

Support for the 13-year-old operating system ends today

The tech industry has come out in force today to urge users off Windows XP as support for the operating system comes to an end.

Security support will be available for users until the end of the day, after which Microsoft will cease supplying updates which it claims are essential for keeping the OS safe.

The channel has joined Microsoft in a year-long migration campaign encouraging customers to move onto Windows 7 or Windows 8 and today resellers have issued customers with last-ditch advice to migrate.

Insight insisted that continuing to use XP could be a false economy.

"Staying on Windows XP may save you money in the short term – allowing you to stretch budgets – but you could find that your total cost of ownership actually increases," it said. "[This is] due to the amount of downtime spent dealing with system failure independently without support from Microsoft or the many software and hardware vendors who no longer support products running Windows XP."

Resellers have taken to Twitter to promote their migration skills, with reseller Lanway tweeting: "Today is the day we say goodbye to Microsoft Windows XP... Let's work through this together."

Last week, CRN revealed the government had struck a deal with Microsoft for extended XP support to be offered to public sector bodies for 12 more months while they upgrade. A CRN investigation based on Freedom of Information (FoI) requests found that most local councils will be running XP in some form after today, with the OS running on some 20 per cent of all local authority PCs.

Reseller Softcat offered its support to its public sector customers on its blog and outlined what the government's deal meant for customers. On a pricing sheet released on Twitter by one of the VAR's government team, it said public sector customers could source extended support from between £12,500 and £28,000 excluding VAT, depending on the level of support required.

Analyst Ovum claimed that PCs running Windows XP are still "at large" in enterprises due to an "ugly" upgrade process.

"Compared to smartphones and tablet devices, PC operating system upgrades are an ugly affair, and thus PC replacement is the preferred option," said Ovum's principal analyst for enterprise mobility and productivity software Richard Edwards.

"But the traditional PC replacement project is not what it once was, as there are now many more options and alternatives to be considered: Windows 7 vs Windows 8; tablet vs PC; Android vs iPad. But whichever option is chosen, moving on from Windows XP could prove transformational for employees and for businesses."