Support for Windows XP and Office 2003 has now ended

On April 8, 2014, Microsoft ended support for the decade-old operating system, Windows XP.
This means that Microsoft will no longer produce updates, including security updates, for
Windows XP. Support for Microsoft Office 2003 has now also ended.

To mark the end of Office 2003 and Windows XP, Microsoft handed over the @MicrosoftSB account to Clippy, the Office 2003 Paperclip for a Q&A on how he is going to spend his retirement. You can see the conversation using the hashtag #AskClippy

Potential business implications

The security and privacy implications of this could have significant impacts on your business, so if you are still running either of these products you should plan to take action as soon as possible.

Down time

The risks of system failure and business disruption could increase because of the end of support, lack of supported software, and the increasing age of hardware running Windows XP.

Security risk

Without critical Windows XP security updates, your PC may become vulnerable to harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software which can steal or damage your business data and information. Anti-virus software will also not be able to fully protect you now Windows XP itself is unsupported.

Software Issues

Many software and hardware vendors no longer support their products that are running on Windows XP as they are unable to get the Windows XP and Office 2003 updates. For example, the new Office leverages the modern Windows and will not run on Windows XP.

No one to call

When a problem arises, online and phone-based technical support will unfortunately no longer be available to assist you or your IT partner, leaving you on your own to deal with the problem.