As we mentioned last week, official support for Windows XP will end April 8, 2014. This means that Microsoft will not be focusing development resources on improving or patching the decade old Operating System after this date and they want to encourage you to upgrade to a newer version of Windows (either Vista, 7 or 8).

However, Microsoft has just announced that they are extending security support for Windows XP until July 14, 2015.

What does this mean? It means that the malware research team at Microsoft will continue to work on virus and malware definitions for security software that is included in the different versions of Windows XP. Microsoft are however warning that users should continue to use other forms of internet security software if they choose to continue to use Windows XP and that their research shows that using antimalware software on out-of-date Operating Systems offers limited security.

If you would like to read more about this you can access the article from the Malware Protection Center here.

We recommend that you use a well trusted and well reviewed internet security application with any Windows Operating System (and Macs too for that matter). Some of our favorites include Malwarebytes, Avira AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security.