WINDOWS XP TUNRS 10

It's hard to believe that it was ten years ago today that Windows XP first hit retail shelves. It's even more astonishing when you realize that it was still the most popular operating system in the world until the beginning of this month. The sun may finally be setting on the stalwart OS that has powered countless home and business PCs (it crossed the 400 million mark way back in 2006), but it's still number two -- right behind it's youngest brother Windows 7 and well ahead of the black sheep, Vista. Sure, our relationship with Microsoft's OS has had its ups and downs, but it's clear we've developed an attachment to the ol' bird. After all, consumer demand kept it shipping on PCs until late 2010 and Redmond has pledged to support it until April 8th of 2014.

MICROSOFT SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS XP ENDS IN 1000 DAYS

It may not sound like a lot of time, but 1,000 days is still the better part of three years. Even so, Microsoft is putting a hard time limit on how much longer they plan to support Windows XP, and even though they’re already counting the days, each new milestone is another opportunity to tell people to stop using Windows XP.

Microsoft said that Monday was the 1,000th day in the countdown to the end for Windows XP, and that afterward they don’t plan on offering any type of support for their once-flagship operating system. Microsoft still thinks there are entirely too many people using Windows XP, and they’re making a point of telling them all to upgrade to Windows 7.

If Microsoft keeps to its word, and the countdown clock runs out without any extensions, Windows XP will go end-of-life in early 2014, after which users who are still running the OS will not receive any further security updates and patches from Microsoft.