Is Windows XP free yet? [closed]

Solution 1:

Aside of copyright taking at least 50 years to expire (usually way longer), using windows XP is strongly discouraged unless you like to be hacked. But to put your quesiton in perspective, even using a pirated windows 95 is still illegal. Chances are microsoft won't care for anything pre windows 2000, but its not always up to microsoft. There are companies who operate on behalf of companies like microsoft, and they only see dollar signs.

So long story short, no. Windows XP is not and will not become free. It would be stupid from Microsoft to do this, because that would promote people to use an operating system where they strongly encourage people not to use it.

Solution 2:

There is a version of Windows XP which Microsoft is providing for "free" (here meaning that you don't have to pay independently for a copy of it). The catch is that you must have a Windows 7 or Windows 8 license that is covered under the program. It is called Windows XP Mode.

It is not a bare-metal version, though, as you must install it as a Virtual PC app (also provided at no cost under the program). You can upgrade this install to the final patch, including the last zero-day patch that Microsoft released after the April 8th, 2014 final end-of-support date. This means it can be used as Windows XP SP3 with all security patches.

This is the only legally "free" version of Windows XP that is available. Any other version either requires its own license, which is not free, or is a pirated/illegal version. Based on prior experience with Microsoft products, we can expect that this version is not allowed for bare-metal installations, and no bare-metal installation version will ever become free, just as there is no legally free version of Windows 3.1, 95, 98, etc, despite the fact that you cannot buy a copy of any of those versions, either.