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Microsoft ending old Windows support
[July 01, 2006]

Microsoft ending old Windows support


(UPI Business News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The Microsoft Corp. says it will end support for some of its older Windows versions, leaving 70 million users without security updates.

The Washington Post says the affected versions are Windows 98, Windows 98 Special Edition (SE) and Windows Millennium Edition (ME).

The policy takes effect July 11. Microsoft first planned the action for January 2004, but delayed to give users time to upgrade.

Users of the older versions will no longer get software fixes, leaving them vulnerable to hackers, the Post said.

Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC, a Framingham, Mass., market-research firm, told the Post an estimated 48 million computers were still running licensed versions of Windows 98 at the end of 2005, with 25 million still using Windows ME.

Gillen said he expects Windows 98 and ME to account for just 6 percent of all Windows installations by the end of this year.

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