Windows XP and Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)

When Windows XP support discontinues in April 2014 your machine will not receive any more updates from Windows to fix any security or application bugs that may appear.

Implications

If you use Windows XP then the chances are you also use IE8 as this is the latest version from Internet Explorer that you can use on Windows XP.

If you upgrade your Windows package to Vista/Windows 7 or 8 then you will then be using IE9, IE10 or IE11 browsers. If you are a website owner and your site or application has been developed using IE8 or earlier then you will need to make significany changes

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The first reason is that client on Windows XP may well switch to using other browsers such as Chome, Firefox or Safari as they are all stil supported and available on Windows XP - unlike later versions of IE. This ensures you get a fully supported browser and that can pay dividends considering the security element of connecting to the internet. Knowing your browser is up to date provides peace of mind.

The second reason is that if existing Windows XP upgrade their windows software then IE10 is very different to IE8.

So if you are a website / application owner and your site currently operates in IE8 or earlier then our advice is if you want people to still use it then you will need to upgrade before April 2014.