What does end of Windows XP support in 2014/04 mean for the end users?
Support of Windows XP ends at 2014-04-08. There is a lot of fuss and fear around this and many arcticles on what you should do but I haven't found a clear explanation: What does the end of support actually mean?
There won't be any new updates. This is the only thing which is clear.
Will we be able to get the old updates? This resource weakly suggests that yes, but I haven't found any more confirmation of that.
Will we be able to install Windows XP on new machines? There was some procedure of confirming the key over the network (registering windows), so will this work as before?
Are there any other direct changes for users of Windows XP?
Note: I am not asking on security consequences of the above, and have my own opinion on updates of this product, so please be so kind and skip the big warnings and disclaimers how it's impossible to use XP without updates. There have been a lot of scaring people and no actual explanation of what actually is going on - this question is meant to fill in the gap.
For #2 assuming Microsoft will actually keep those files available, then yes it will be, but I can't find confirmation anywhere.
For #3 This link answers it pretty well and content that we care:
Microsoft will also support the activation of Windows XP throughout its life and will likely provide an update that turns activation off at the end of the product's lifecycle so users would no longer be required to activate the product.
For #4 Since XP will simply still work, and there are actually LESS annoying as it will no longer annoy end users for "Windows Update"
April 8 2014 is the date at which Microsoft officially stops providing technical support for Microsoft Windows XP. This has a number of consequences for end users including (but not limited to):
Confirmed Events
- No new updates provided for the Windows XP operating system.
-
Microsoft Security Essentials will not be available for download from Microsoft after April 8, however the following Microsoft anti-malware products will continue to receive updates until July 14, 2015
Microsoft Security Essentials
Forefront Client Security
Forefront Endpoint Protection
System Center Endpoint Protection Windows Intune
Unconfirmed Events
Device manufacturers will begin phasing out the release of Windiws XP compatible drivers for new products, and may stop updating the Windows XP drivers for existing products
Application developers will not continue to consider Windows XP when making changes to their products so versions released after the end of support may or may not continue to run on Windows XP.
New versions of web browsers will eventually not be available on Windows XP. As web sites are upgraded to use newer features of web standards such as CSS, Windows XP users will eventually begin to notice that sites do not display correctly. Additionally web sites which strictly enforce browser version checking may become inaccessible to Windows XP users
Longer term, newer versions of Windows may change their default authentication protocols or other security policies. If this happens, Windows XP users may experience difficulty doing things like logging into Active Directory or accessing file shares hosted on newer versions of Windows, unless these machines are permitted to use the earlier protocol version, which system administrators may choose not to allow for security reasons.
Sources:
- Microsoft
- The Register
- Personal experience running Windows 98 after EOL