Riverbank It management

Microsoft has announced that the end of the road for Windows XP arrives on 22 October when it will stop supplying it as an option for new PCs. No-one is expecting a rush to snap up the final few copies though - its successor Windows 7 has proved to be popular and uncontroversial.

Support for Windows XP is scheduled to continue until 2014.

Update 23/7/10: This change applies only to factory-installed operating systems. There are still 'end user' downgrade rights, ie you are free to downgrade from Windows 7 to XP if you do it yourself. These rights are really on relevant to large companies with policies applied to thousands of PCs, or individual PC users who don't have enough to do. Downgrading from one perfectly good operating system to another has to be one of the least rewarding uses of time.