Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
As official support for Windows XP is phased out, what you can expect from Microsoft will change. Fortunately, it will phase out over a fairly long time.
When Microsoft discontinues support for XP, what will happen if I need to reformat? Will I still be able to get all the updates?
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It depend on exactly when you're thinking of. Microsoft won't just stop supporting XP, they'll phase out support. Where in that phase out you happen to be will make a lot of difference.
Fortunately, we have examples of what they've done in the past to make some guesses as to how they'll handle XP.
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First, my prediction is that whatever the currently stated dates are for Windows XP's end of life, they'll likely be extended. As we know, many people have been slow to leave XP behind and move to Vista. How Windows 7 will impact this is anyone's guess, but the large remaining installed base of Windows XP, particularly in business, will I believe cause Microsoft to extend support beyond its original plans.
That being said, though, all good things will eventually come to an end.
Based on Microsoft's past phase out of products like Windows 98, I'll throw out this as a likely scenario:
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Support for the original product without service packs is withdrawn. Windows XP is actually already at this point since as SP2 is now required. If you attempt to take product updates for an original Windows XP, one of the first things you'll be expected to take is SP2.
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Support for early service packs is withdrawn. Once again, Windows XP is already at this point, as SP1 is no longer supported. Your first attempt to update an SP1 machine should result in a download of SP2.
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At what Microsoft calls the "supported service pack level" (as I write this, currently SP2 and SP3 for Windows XP), the product is in "Mainstream Support", including security updates, bug fixes and more.
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After some period of time (Microsoft documents this as 5 years, but it's been known to change), the product enters "Extended" support phase. Most notably, this means that only security updates are issued. My sense is that the requirements for what is, and is not a security issue also get tougher throughout that phase.
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After another 5 years or so, the product enters what Microsoft carefully calls "Self-help online support". Put another way, you're on your own. All the documentation remains online, but actual support and/or updates may no longer be available. Windows 98 and Me are in this phase right now.
Now, interestingly, if you look at the Windows Support Lifecycle information on Windows XP, they currently list the following dates for Windows XP Pro:
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General Availability: 12/31/2001
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Mainstream Support Retired: 4/14/2009
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Extended Support Retired: 4/8/2014
As you can see, mainstream support for Windows XP is scheduled to be retired within weeks of this article being published. Will it happen? Maybe, maybe not. The good news is that security updates will continue to be available into 2014.
Will you be running Windows XP in 2014? To be honest, I hope not. That's kind of like running Windows 98 today - it's just not really a good idea. But if for some reason you must, you'll be able to.
Article C3686 - March 27, 2009
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I hate Vista, I have a new computer that had Vista preinstalled and downgraded it to Windows XP Pro because it couldnt handle Vista well.Xp runs just right.I will stick with XP till Microsoft comes out with something that doesnt hog so much of resourses as Vista does.
Posted by: Chris at April 13, 2009 10:45 PMWell Windows 7(basically a debugged and improved version of Vista) will be for sale in mid-October of 2009, just in time for Xmas. What a surprise. I have XP and I've never made the switch to Vista, thank cookies, and I will probably stick with XP until I am forced to switch over whether because of compatibility issues or they stop with the updates. Vista was a giant SCAM, and it's a great example of what ALL companies do nowadays, they release their product TOO soon. 100% Greed Microsoft better hope Windows 7 is the "sh*t", if they fail here like they did with Vista I'm not sure where we will go.
Posted by: Chris at May 13, 2009 6:59 PMNevermind the OS, it's the software which matters ^^ I know a lot of archaic users which you speak of, Sandy. DOS has the software which bests all available competition today. When XP is a relic, I might still cling to it for my software's purposes...unless I find a way to run it in Linux ^^
Posted by: snail at August 10, 2009 4:36 PMI think that more and more people, even some causal users, will begin turning to Ubuntu and other Linux flavors. I'm not a casual user; I'm also not a top geek (used in the positive sense); I guess I would consider myself a "power user". I tried Ubuntu recently and was impressed; it's at least as good as Win XP if not beyond. (I ended up settling for Puppy Linux -- also an excellent product -- because the machine I wanted Linux for is a bit old.)
Posted by: knowerseeker at October 23, 2009 6:18 AMI bought a Toshiba P305-S8832 (Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, 3Gb ram, 2 SATA HDD) with Vista Home Premium and after a year of annoyances, I got tired and installed WinXP Home SP3 and is doing just fine!!! Now I have lots of memory to run my applications. I have a Toshiba 6100 (PIV 2Ghz, 1Gb ram, 160GB HDD) which is working fine with WinXP Home SP3! and also an Asus Eee-PC 900 with Ubuntu 9.10 working just fine!!! I do not plan to try Windos Seven and maybe if one of these machines is still alive by the end of 2014, it will end using Ubuntu by sure!
Posted by: emmerc at November 17, 2009 11:11 PM