Windows XP “End-of-Life”

May 5th, 2013

Medicus Solutions would like to provide an update as it relates to the ‘end of life’ of Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003. There has been a lot of buzz this past week and it has been getting a lot of publicity in the news, generating many questions, prompting us to put together information for our customers.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Windows XP was released August 2001; before Facebook or Twitter was even introduced to the world. Microsoft will end support officially on April 8, 2014 for Windows XP and Office 2003.  Additionally, many Internet Explorer (IE) applications will be moving to and requiring Internet Explorer 9.0 to function; this is also not available with Windows XP.  We have all grown to love Windows XP and these technology changes make a large impact to us all and preparations need to start occurring for anyone who has and uses Windows XP in their businesses today..

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU?

First and foremost, with Microsoft ending support and security patches, this will make XP computers more vulnerable to attacks and malware, even if these devices are not connected to the internet and are connected to a private network.  Because of the end of security patches, after the end of support date, XP will no longer be an acceptable as part of your practice’s HIPAA compliant solution.

Many software vendors have already released that they will be requiring Internet Explorer 9 in future versions which is an additional reason why XP computers will need to be retired.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

Upgrading the operating system OR replacing the XP machines will need to occur to protect the security of your systems and to meet basic HIPAA security compliance.  Some computers may have hardware capable to run and upgrade to Windows 7.  If the hardware is not powerful enough for the Microsoft upgrades, we recommend to pull, shred the hard drive, and recycle the old PC; replacing it with a new computer running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8 Professional.

We understand that many computers may have a Windows 7 Professional license running XP and can be upgraded.  This can be checked by looking at the top of the computer at the Microsoft certificate of authenticity which will provide the version of the license.

Below are a few links from Microsoft which include so of the above mentioned dates and support.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/system-requirements

Thank you!

The Medicus Support Team