Microsoft is counting down to the end of an era. On April 8, the company officially washes its hands of Windows XP, an operating system introduced in 2001 that comprises 45 million lines of code. You can watch the clock tick down in slightly eerie fashion, green boxes on a purple background, on Microsoft’s website, which also gives some pithy advice on what this means: “It means you should take action.”
Are you still running Windows XP? Are you ready for Tuesday? More than 12 years after Windows XP’s release, Microsoft will officially end support for the aging operating system on Tuesday, April 8 — three days from now. That means no more security updates. Yes, of course, Windows XP machines will continue to run. But when hackers find a flaw in the operating system, Microsoft will no longer even attempt to prevent them from exploiting it. Determined to stick with it? You’re not alone. More than 27 percent of computers worldwide are still running Windows XP, according to Net Applications data, and even if there’s a rush to buy new PCs in the next few days, that number is likely to stay in the double-digits for a long time to come.