Thor Schrock

Microsoft has announced that they will be providing five years of "extended support" to consumer users of Windows XP. Previous to this announcement, all consumer support for Windows XP would have ended in 2009 - two years after the release of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista.

But before you give your Windows XP box a hug and a kiss for Valentine's Day, "extended support" is different from the normal support that will be available until 2009.

"Extended Support" for Windows XP is already available to businesses and network administrators through 2014. For consumers this means that Microsoft will continue issuing security patches and updates for Windows XP through 2014. However, if you have problems with your retail-purchased copy of Windows XP, you will have to pay Microsoft for that support call to India.

for the great many consumers who got an OEM copy of Windows XP preinstalled on a new computer, expect your manufacturers (HP, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, etc...) to also discontinue free support as scheduled in 2014 and dish all users with problems to Microsoft's pay-per-call "extended support" lines, or a similar support system run by the manufacturer its self.