FAQ: Reprieve or RIP for Windows XP?

Will Microsoft let computer manufacturers install Windows XP on low-priced desktop PCs after the 30/6/2008 and 31/1/2009 deadlines? No. Only hardware that meets Microsoft's still-cloudy ULCPC definition will be allowed to ship with XP Home after January 2009. Desktops need not apply, in other words.

Is Microsoft extending its technical support for XP to account for these ULCPCs? Nope. The company said previously that it will shift Windows XP from what it calls "mainstream" support to its "extended" support stage next April, and that isn't changing. When a Microsoft product leaves mainstream support behind, the company ditches all of its free support except online self-help and issues free fixes only for security vulnerabilities.

But Microsoft doesn't directly support Windows when the operating system is preinstalled on a new machine -- it's the hardware vendor's responsibility to take Windows support calls. So last Thursday's announcement really doesn't matter, support-wise. Even though, say, Asustek may install Windows XP Home on ULCPCs after the operating system falls into extended support limbo, it's never-no-mind for Microsoft as well as customers. Asustek would be the one to field support queries from users.

Microsoft's Dix put it plainly in the online Q&A on Thursday. "There will also be no impact on our technical support plans," he said. "Mainstream technical support will continue to be available until April 2009, and extended support will continue until April 2014."

Let me get this straight: after June 30, I won't be able to buy Windows XP except in a ULCPC? We didn't say that. The June 30 deadline applies to what Microsoft calls its "retail channels." On a License Availability Roadmap that's posted on the Microsoft Web site, the company says June 30 is the end date for sales of "direct OEM and retail" licenses. There's nothing about absolute, end-of-all-availability.

System builders can still sell XP licenses through next January, of course. (You remembered that from above, right?) And standalone copies of XP certainly will be sold after the June 30 deadline, if only on sites like eBay. For instance, a quick search conducted last Friday on the online auction site, using the keyword phrase "windows xp," found more than 1,000 items up for bid or purchase in the Operating Systems section of the site alone.