Extended support for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 — the last supported version from the XP family — ended on April 9, 2019. Thus, products from Windows NT 5.1 have definitively exited the market after more than 17.5 years of presence. The era of this operating system has concluded.
Consequently, Windows XP has become the longest-lasting version of Windows on the market. Its record may someday be surpassed by '10', which Microsoft initially referred to as the last OS. Of course, this refers to the numbering.
Other enterprise variants of Windows XP lost support even earlier:
- Windows Embedded Standard 2009 — January 8, 2019;
- Windows Embedded for Point of Service SP3 and XP Embedded SP3 — in 2016;
- Windows XP Home and Professional SP3 — April 8, 2014.
It should be noted that despite the nominal end of support for Windows XP five years ago, the existence of POSReady 2009 allowed users to receive security updates for Windows XP Home and Professional SP3 through registry edits. The company tried to dissuade users from such steps, but many took advantage of it. However, the end of support for POSReady signifies the final departure of XP into history.
It is noteworthy that the old operating system is still used by many companies, although users acknowledge the issues with it, such as the lack of security updates. On the other hand, XP is gradually being replaced by Linux, macOS, or newer versions of operating systems from Redmond. So, there is no significant problem with this.
Source: 3dnews.ru
