Businesses using Windows XP need to make certain their systems are equipped with Service Pack 3 by July this year to ensure continued technical assistance from Microsoft.

Although XP is currently in its extended support phase, which runs until April 2014, users still need to be using a supported service pack to be eligible for this.

Support for Service Pack 1 (SP1) was dropped in October 2006 and support for SP2 is now being discontinued on 13th July 2010, so time is quickly running out.

Meanwhile, July 2010 sees the end of support for Windows 2000, an operating system that was first released a decade ago. Users of Windows 2000 are now being advised to upgrade to a newer operating system as soon as possible.

What is a service pack?

Windows service packs are important software updates for Microsoft operating systems, which are released periodically to enable users to benefit from all the latest security, performance, and stability improvements. ‘Service Pack’ is often shorted to ‘SP’ and followed by a number denoting the version release.