14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP is no longer a supported operating system at Microsoft and you might be tempted to believe that the Redmond-based tech giant no longer cares about it, but there's not at all true.
In fact, Microsoft keeps an eye on everything related to Windows XP, so it recently decided to start legal action against a Minnesota-based company for selling pirated copies of this old operating system.
According to court documents first spotted by PatentlyMobile, Microsoft sued Ocean Enterprises and its owner Alex Sumetsky for selling computers running unauthorized copies for Windows in the last few years.
It appears that Microsoft itself contacted the company and warned them that sold Windows XP copies are not genuine, but computers shipped after receiving the notifications continued to run unlicensed software.
Here are some excerpts from the court documents:
“Defendants advertised, marketed, installed, offered and distributed unauthorized copies of Microsoft software, infringing Microsoft’s copyrights, trademarks and/or service mark.
“On information and belief, Defendants advertise that the computers that they sell come pre-installed with Microsoft software. In their advertisements, Defendants misappropriate and/or infringe Microsoft’s copyrights, advertising ideas, style of doing business, slogans, trademarks and/or service mark.
“Computers sold by Defendants actually have infringing copies of Microsoft software installed.”
Windows XP is no longer receiving updates and security patches since April 2014, but approximately 25 percent of the desktop computers worldwide are still running it. This is living proof that not everyone is ready to switch to a different operating system, despite Microsoft's efforts to put the emphasis on how risky it actually is to stay on an unsupported platform.
Microsoft warns that, without security patches and fixing, Windows XP is extremely vulnerable to attacks, no matter if you are running third-party security software or not.
In fact, Redmond itself pulled the plug on Security Essentials for Windows XP in an attempt to move users to a newer Windows version, promising to update the existing installations until at least mid-2014.
“Windows Internet Explorer 8 is also no longer supported, so if you use it (or any other browser) to surf the web, you might be exposing your PC to additional threats. Microsoft has also stopped providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP,” the company warned.
As far as piracy is concerned, while it's not hard to find a genuine copy of Windows XP online if you know where to look, Microsoft says that activation is still possible, despite the end of support.