Windows XP to Windows 7: It’s Time to Move On

There have been thousands of stories about Windows 7 on the net and in print for months. By now, everyone should know the new operating system is coming, and coming soon. It’s set to launch on October 22nd, 2010.

More talk about the features would be overkill – there is so much information out there that there’s no need to retread covered ground. Instead I’d like to discuss the upgrade in another way – by thinking about the operating system as analogous to physical space.

Everyone has physical objects that help them work better – a favorite brand of pen, a keyboard set at just the right angle, a desk chair with good lumbar support – we spend time tweaking our physical environment to make our lives easier. We tune our workspace to be as productive as possible, keeping them streamlined and clean. Why should our digital lives be any different?

Operating systems are like offices – we spend hours in them every day, so things should be arranged to be as productive as possible. If nothing else, this should be a good reason to upgrade your operating system to Windows 7, especially if you’re still using Windows XP. 7 has performance tweaks which will make the operating system environment more comfortable and productive, like Aero Shake, better reliability, and Aero Peek.

If that’s not enough reason to upgrade, the most important reason is Microsoft’s diminishing support of Windows XP. In 2014 Microsoft will discontinue support for Windows XP completely. Microsoft is already weaning the aging OS from their support pipeline.

Recently Microsoft patched TCP/IP vulnerabilities in Vista and Windows Server, but left XP out of the loop. Why? It was too old to patch.* 2014 might be the official date, but you can probably expect more occurrences like this as 2014 gets closer.

If your chair was full of holes and too old to patch, if your pen was out of ink – you’d buy a new one, wouldn’t you? Of course you would. Windows XP is full of holes, too. It’s out of ink. Microsoft may keep Windows XP limping along until 2014, but don’t expect any frills.

Microsoft has moved on to Windows 7. And so should you. It’s time to buy a new chair.

*http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138007/Microsoft_No_TCP_IP_patches_for_you_XP