Aged OS shuffles off clutching P45

Windows XP will pass another milestone on the road to retirement next week when Microsoft withdraws mainstream support for the operating system..

Microsoft's ever-evolving rollout of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) continues as the company releases the update to XP Home Edition users who have enabled Automatic Updates. XP Professional Edition users will have to wait until next week to get the long-awaited update through Automatic Updates.

As Vista and Windows 7 share the same core code, Microsoft has decided to merely nudge up the version number (Windows Vista was 6) so that applications are tricked into thinking it's Vista they're dealing with

Keen to forget the PR nightmare that was Vista, Microsoft may have committed yet another blunder: Windows XP users will not be able to upgrade to Windows 7 without a totally clean install.

News that Microsoft won't budge on the June 30 cut-off for Windows XP sales isn't all bad - system builders might still be offering the old-faithful till 2009.

Windows 7 RC arrives along with beta of XP application compatibility tool.

Microsoft is rolling down the shutters on Windows XP, although low cost flash-based laptop vendors get a reprieve from being forced onto Vista.

With the cut-off for XP sales fast approaching, what do you do if you're opposed to switching to Vista? Alex explains why you'd be best off with the "downgrade" option., and what it all means.

The hot little seller makes the big leap from Linux to XP, with a small price jump.

Dell, HP and Lenovo use loophole to allow XP to live on, but only for certain machines. Good news if you're wedded to XP.

The company promises that Windows 7 will be the best version of its operating system yet, critical acclaim has often eluded Redmond. We've decided to count down the ten best products ever to come out of Redmond, from DOS 5 to Flight Simulator and NT 4.0

Microsoft has published a release candidate of XP Mode for Windows 7

Microsoft this week released public previews of the 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as it changed the official names of the high-end operating systems.

Confusion still abounds over the long anticipated and much beleaguered launch of Microsoft XP SP2.

Deciding to stay in the "save-XP" camp? This month's Service Pack could be the last, so lets hope it's a good one.

'New' XP systems arrive after customer complaints.

Vendor to support XP Home and Media Center Edition for an extra five years.