Microsoft announced April 8 as end of support date for Windows XP users around the world, but users of the 12-year-old OS in China will continue to receive security support for a few more years.
Microsoft has reminded the users of its oldest desktop operating system about the end of support for Windows XP more than a few times. Despite that only a small number of users upgraded to the supported versions of Windows.
Users in China need not worry about as renowned web companies of the country have allied to offer security support for the OS after the proposed end date.
Microsoft's Windows XP users will no longer receive security patches to fix software vulnerabilities if they choose to run the 12-year-old OS on their machines. In order to stay protected while browsing online, Microsoft advised users to make a switch either by upgrading the OS version or purchasing a new PC. Though the usage of Windows XP is gradually declining in the United States, in developing countries like China, the usage of XP remains extremely high.
According to a report from analytics site CNZZ.com, around 57 percent of internet users in China run Windows XP, the highest usage of the OS is seen in cafes, schools, and businesses, PC World reports.
In a surprising move, Chinese web companies including the messaging giant Tencent, search engine Sogou, software company Kingsoft and many others joined forces to offer technical support for Windows XP users by dispatching security updates, according to a local English news siteXinhua.
The support for XP users will go beyond Microsoft's proposed end date and will last for more than three years, if the demand continues to remain high. The process of how these web companies will offer security assistance is unknown.
In a post on Sina Weibo, China's biggest social networking site, Microsoft revealed that 70 percent of the country's Windows XP users have not installed the security updates released in over a decade. That said, Microsoft announced last month that it will directly offer anti-malware updates for XP in its System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection, Windows Intune and Security Essentials products to all XP users after April 8. But that does not change the end of support for XP, which means the OS will be vulnerable to hacks and viruses.
