Stefan Mileschin

Windows XP is being retired from Microsoft’s support roster this time next year and now Redmond is offering discounts to XP users who choose to upgrade.

Since it did such a wonderful job with Vista, Win 7 and Win 8, Microsoft is practically paying people to upgrade, and it does not seem to be finding many takers. SMBs still stuck on XP and Office 2003 can get a 15 percent discount for Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 purchases, reports Computerworld.

Since Microsoft’s Open License website lists Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 for a total of $561, the 15 percent discount translates to about $84. It might not sound like much, but it helps, especially if SMBs are in the market for multiple licences.

However, the offer only stands for customers running XP Professional and consumers must buy the licences via Microsoft’s Open License programme. Furthermore, the discount is limited to 100 licences per client and it will last until 30 June.

Another problem is hardware and software compatibility. XP is 12 years old and it is used on antiquated boxes. Although many of them can be upgraded to cope with Windows 8, some bits of hardware can’t. The same goes for specialised software developed ten or more years ago.

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