That ever blue sky, those endless green hills, you could almost say it was a holiday.
If it were a holiday, it would be over as Windows XP has reached its End of Support life with Microsoft.

So after 12 years of supporting and updating Windows XP, Microsoft has cut off its life support today the 8^th April 2014.

What does this exactly mean?

Well a few things.
Firstly all versions of Windows XP will no longer be available for purchase.
If you are running Windows XP you will no longer receive any more automatic updates.
There will not be any new patches or security updates for all versions of Windows XP.
All official support from Microsoft will cease. This includes the maintenance and creation of knowledgebase articles.

The End of Support for XP will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials updates for all XP users. This means if you stick with Windows XP and are running Microsoft’s Security Essentials as your only Anti-Virus software, you remain unprotected to any new viruses.
If you have MSE (Microsoft’s Security Essentials) installed, you may still receive anti-malware updates for a limited time according to Microsoft.

You can still safely use your version of Windows XP after today as it will not stop functioning and Microsoft does not have a switch to turn it off on your PC, however every day that goes by you will be slightly more at risk to the ever increasing viruses that target (and will definitely directed towards) Windows XP.

One other thing I have seen and been informed of is that some users are getting pop ups about this end of support cut-off date.
This can be seen as a small windows or pop up at the bottom right of the users screen.

What we recommend is to not upgrade your Windows XP machine, but move everything to A Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 machine as soon as possible to take advantage of all the great new features and at the same time be well protected.

We at A&STech will still provide troubleshooting and technical support for your Windows XP machine as we are still fond of the OS.