AfterDawn: News

Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 support ends next year, reminds Microsoft

Microsoft has reminded users today that support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 will end on July 13th, 2010, giving users enough time to upgrade.

After July 13th, there will no longer be any security updates or assisted support and users will be completely on there own. Additionally, Windows 2003 Server will move from "Mainstream Support" to "Extended Support" and will become unsupported in 2015.



Windows 2000 is currently in SP4, and has had all of its other service packs retired in the past decade. Users are encouraged to upgrade, even just to XP SP3. XP Service Pack 2 users are encouraged to update to SP3 (which is free), Vista or 7.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 Dec 2009 14:52

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• 20 comments

• bomber991

  Looks like XP Sp3 will be supported until April 8, 2014. Just the security updates though.
  http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?...11&y=9&C2=1173.
  
  Hopefully I'll be done with college by 2011, have a quick new computer within a year or that, and then maybe go to whatever new windows their is or more likely, just go with a linux distro.
  
  XP came out in 2001, so it's already an 8 year old OS. By 2014 it'll be a 13 year old OS.

  8.12.2009 15:09 #1

• ZippyDSM

  So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?

  8.12.2009 15:28 #2

• nonoitall

  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?Turn on automatic updates or download it from Microsoft's site?

  8.12.2009 15:41 #3

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?Turn on automatic updates or download it from Microsoft's site?
  Yuck why would I want it from them? even more so when they won't be providing it in a year :P
  
  Man I miss autopatcher packages and updating offline........

  8.12.2009 15:44 #4

• jookycola

  Seriously i upped to SP3 on my XP computer and half my stuff either became buggy or outright didn't work anymore. M$ Customer service said i should reformat and download all the patches for my software. that's just ridiculous I have way too much on my computer to spend the whole day fixing their f*ck up.
  No thanks.
  IMHO SP3 was designed to make XP users want to upgrade to Vista by making XP unstable.

  8.12.2009 16:20 #5

• scorpNZ

  Nah your comps just buggy period,microsoft were correct in telling you it's time to reformat,SP3 is not a major update it's nothing more than SP1 & SP2 rolled togeather along with a few securty updates,SP3's main focus was to add more function to XP Prof in regards to networking & administration,the more software you add to an already buggy computer the worse it'll get

  8.12.2009 16:59 #6

• xnonsuchx

  Originally posted by jookycola: Seriously i upped to SP3 on my XP computer and half my stuff either became buggy or outright didn't work anymore. M$ Customer service said i should reformat and download all the patches for my software. that's just ridiculous I have way too much on my computer to spend the whole day fixing their f*ck up.
  No thanks.
  IMHO SP3 was designed to make XP users want to upgrade to Vista by making XP unstable.Yeah, SP3 is quirky. Even on a clean install of SP2 and adding SP3, it does odd things that I never had happen under SP2.
  
  Luckily, 'free' copies of Win7 seem to work when switching to that is more of a necessity. :-)

  8.12.2009 19:08 #7

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by scorpNZ: Nah your comps just buggy period,microsoft were correct in telling you it's time to reformat,SP3 is not a major update it's nothing more than SP1 & SP2 rolled togeather along with a few securty updates,SP3's main focus was to add more function to XP Prof in regards to networking & administration,the more software you add to an already buggy computer the worse it'll getMeh the first time SP2 came out I had to format and reinstall and SP3 made my PC wonky......

  8.12.2009 19:11 #8

• ddp

  try installing the updates 1st before installing sp3.

  8.12.2009 19:30 #9

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by ddp: try installing the updates 1st before installing sp3.that was a few installs ago before the glory of win7 came along :P
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  8.12.2009 19:32 #10

• nonoitall

  SP3 hasn't given me any problems even when updating from an existing SP2 install, but if that causes issues for you, you could try slipstreaming and doing a fresh install of SP3.
  
  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?Turn on automatic updates or download it from Microsoft's site?
  Yuck why would I want it from them? even more so when they won't be providing it in a year :P
  SP3 will continue to receive security updates until 2014. ;-)

  8.12.2009 20:35 #11

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:SP3 hasn't given me any problems even when updating from an existing SP2 install, but if that causes issues for you, you could try slipstreaming and doing a fresh install of SP3.
  
  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?Turn on automatic updates or download it from Microsoft's site?
  Yuck why would I want it from them? even more so when they won't be providing it in a year :P
  SP3 will continue to receive security updates until 2014. ;-)dose not mean I want to use SP3 :P

  8.12.2009 20:38 #12

• tatsh

  I am already 95% a Linux user (Gentoo). By the time support ends for XP I probably won't need Windows anymore, except maybe in a VM.

  8.12.2009 23:18 #13

• xnonsuchx

  Quote:SP3 hasn't given me any problems even when updating from an existing SP2 install, but if that causes issues for you, you could try slipstreaming and doing a fresh install of SP3.
  
  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?Turn on automatic updates or download it from Microsoft's site?
  Yuck why would I want it from them? even more so when they won't be providing it in a year :P
  SP3 will continue to receive security updates until 2014. ;-)And you should still be able to get all 2K and XP SP2 updates for a while afterward too...there just won't be any NEW updates made available. You could still even get Win98 updates via Windows Update as recently as a year or so ago (the last time I checked).

  9.12.2009 08:20 #14

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Quote:SP3 hasn't given me any problems even when updating from an existing SP2 install, but if that causes issues for you, you could try slipstreaming and doing a fresh install of SP3.
  
  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: So wheres a good place to get window XP update packages?Turn on automatic updates or download it from Microsoft's site?
  Yuck why would I want it from them? even more so when they won't be providing it in a year :P
  SP3 will continue to receive security updates until 2014. ;-)And you should still be able to get all 2K and XP SP2 updates for a while afterward too...there just won't be any NEW updates made available. You could still even get Win98 updates via Windows Update as recently as a year or so ago (the last time I checked).oh I thought they stopped supporting it entrierly IE all the updates vanish from there site. 0-0

  9.12.2009 13:32 #15

• borhan9

  So after reading this u don't really have to worry about changing the entire Operating System but more just updating the Service Pack to 3 on XP and you still get support.
  Nice to know...

  9.12.2009 14:58 #16

• zipptide

  XP SP2 4life , i have been running SP2 in my daily driver since the mid 07,its been super stable and never updated it since. ive also never use that "build" again. i got another custom "build" of SP3,its lite ,stable ,and it works
  imho xp dosent like to be prodded with k lettered updates ,but a clean install of a "custom Build" cant be beat

  9.12.2009 23:45 #17

• forkndave

  I installed SP3 on my granddaughter's laptop and it removed the SATA driver. Her laptop had a SATA HD and did not have a native driver. The laptop also did not have a floppy drive. I had to buy a USB floppy drive so that I could reinstall Windows. I could find no way to install the driver without using a floppy. Initially I installed Vista, which she hated. After I got the USB floppy I was able to reinstall XP. I've installed SP3 on other computers and it didn't do this. It converted this laptop into a paper weight.

  11.12.2009 17:36 #18

• SuperXL

  i have found that slipstreaming service packs into a custom XP setup CD works fairly well. i tried installing sp1,2,&3 individually on systems and have seen some things change, but after slipstreaming, the same issues werent there. just new ones sometimes. but in reality slipstreaming did help.
  
  @forkndave
  try using nlite to slipstream the SP3 and integrate drivers for the hardware. it may help. that's what i did for my friend's pc. neither of us had floppy drives to use because i convinced her that she didnt need one anymore some years ago. i simply refused to have one ever again, so i definitely needed to do something. that was my solution.

  12.12.2009 04:32 #19

• forkndave

  I suppose that could have been done although at the time I didn't know how to do that. Windows just kept telling me that there was no hard drive to install to. This is not a problem with later versions of Windows since they have SATA drivers included. The last several motherboards I've used have all had native SATA drivers so there was no problem there either. I doubt I'll run into this again, but if I do I still have the USB floppy. I imagine I'll be using Windows 7 from now on anyhow although I believe I still like XP a little better.

  12.12.2009 17:52 #20