Microsoft extends Windows XP support through 2009
updated 11:00 am EST, Wed January 24, 2007
Win XP Supported to 2009
Microsoft today revealed that it would extend full support for the Home and Media Center editions of Windows XP until April 2009, as well as add a special extended support option for five years afterwards. The change gives home-oriented Windows owners virtually identical support as for Windows XP Professional, Microsoft says, providing regular paid technical support as well as security updates and other crucial fixes until 2014.
The Windows creator has already needed changes to its support plan, which would have ended updates to Home Edition as soon as the end of 2006 -- exactly five years after its widespread availability in December 2001. Delays in Windows Vista's release, however, prompted an initial extension of support until two years after the new OS was launched. Today's second extension is a response to criticism that Microsoft will end support for an OS still being sold today as new in only two years, according to Microsoft Japan's Darren Huston.
