With Just Over a Month Left, Why Has Windows XP Usage Gone Up?

With a new month reveal for 2014, it’s that time again where we do a quick checkup to see just how far along we are with those Windows XP migrations. Windows XP, as you know, loses all OS support on April 8, 2014.

With a little more than a month left for the cutoff, Windows XP usage has edged slightly higher. And, for good reason. Personally, I think it's less likely that new installations of Windows XP are happening, and more likely that computers that haven't been used for a long while are being booted up so that upgrade options can be reviewed. The increase is very minimal, but still it's much higher than anyone wants to see. Sitting around the 30 percent mark, Windows XP continues to be a concern and no matter how much it's talked about, the almost 13 year old OS continues to hang on.

Granted, the majority of that almost 30 percent number is probably represented in home users. I suspect the business representation is around 10 to 12 percent. But, even 10 percent is significant, bringing business systems into a very unstable, unsecure state after the April 8 deadline.  

Windows 8.1 made a good jump between February and March, but so did Mac OS X 10.9. That's not to say that Windows XP is being traded for OS X, but only that more Mac users are taking advantage of their free OS upgrade option. Linux on the desktop has been in a steady decline for months.

Source: NetMarketShare