Microsoft has finally made good on their threat to stop supporting Windows XP and on April 8, 2014 will stop providing update and fixes for one of their most popular operating system releases.\u00a0 Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001 and end development of it in 2008.\u00a0 They have continued to provide bug-fixes and minor updates until April 8, 2014.<\/p>\n
To find out what version of Windows you are running you could go to this page on Microsoft’s web site, but it said I was running Windows 8.1 even though I am running Ubuntu.\u00a0 So if you know you are not running Ubuntu or Mac OS X the following steps will help you find your version of Windows.<\/p>\n
The minimum hardware<\/strong><\/span> you need to run Windows 8.1 is:<\/p>\n I stress this is the minimum to even install and doubling these minimums<\/strong><\/span> is needed to run Windows 8 in a efficient and productive way. Also this does not take into account any other applications you might install and run.<\/p>\n So you either need to buy new hardware, which will come with a newer version of Windows or switch to another operating system.\u00a0 To use Mac OS X you need to buy an Apple Macintosh PC which, in my opinion, is a much better interface and less of a target for computer viruses that Microsoft Windows.<\/p>\n If do not want to buy new computer hardware there are alternatives that will run on your existing PC.\u00a0 Check out the free\u00a0Lubuntu<\/a>, a lightweight variation of Ubuntu<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you use you computer for just email and browsing these free alternatives will fit the bill.\u00a0 You can also edit documents (in most Microsoft Office and other formats) with the free LibreOffice<\/a> office suite software.<\/p>\n\n