Microsoft to end support for Windows XP today

One of the most widely used operating systems is set to lose official support today.

The 2001-launched Windows XP is being retired by Microsoft even as it is being used on many computers either due to sheer necessity like in ATMs  or users having just stuck to it and never felt the need to upgrade.

Work on the system started at Microsoft in the latter half of the 1990s, and was the OS was first named Neptune.

It was built on the Windows NT Kernel, used mainly in consumer PCs.

Microsoft was looking to build a different operating system, based on different needs of consumers and businesses, both Windows 2000-based that preceded the XP.

However, in a move that shaped the future of Windows, the company decided to use just one OS for both types of customers. The OS was codenamed Whistler, which came to be known as the XP.

In February 2001, the Windows XP name was officially adopted by the company. The XP stands for experience which the company believed it was delivering. The moniker also had a certain ring to it  and soon caught on. It was loved so much by Microsoft that Microsoft Office as well, came to be named Office XP for the specific release.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is pushing remaining XP owners to upgrade to a newer operating system, such as Windows 7 or 8, but it would still be possible to use existing Windows XP computers after Microsoft the XP, but there would be risks.

Patrick Thomas, a security consultant at California-based firm Neohapsis, told AP that what was once was considered low-hanging fruit by hackers now had a big neon bull's eye on it.

According to Thomas companies generally resisted change because they did not like risk and consequently, businesses most likely to still be using XP included banks and financial services companies, along with health care providers.

He further pointed out that schools from the university level down, said they often did not have enough money to fund equipment upgrades.

According to Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes, without patches to fix bugs in the software XP PCs would be prone to freezing up and crashing, while the absence of updated security related protections made the computers susceptible to hackers, AP reported.

He added from future security patches released for Microsoft's newer systems hackers would be able to reverse engineer ways to breach now-unprotected Windows XP computers.