This week Microsoft stopped providing antimalware signatures for Microsoft Security Essentials running on Windows XP. Officially, support for Windows XP stopped in April 2014 but Microsoft continued to provide updated antivirus signatures to its security software if it was already installed on the user’s system. This week marks the end of all security updates for Windows XP from Microsoft. 

Microsoft has been adamant that “Any PC running Windows XP after April 8, 2014 should not be considered protected as there will be no security updates for the Windows XP operating system. We strongly recommend that you complete your migration to a supported operating system as soon as possible so that you can receive regular security updates to help protect your computer from malicious attacks.” But according to NetMarketShare, Windows XP still has 16% of the desktop operating system market share in the first half of 2015.

Even though Windows XP is almost 14 years old, there is still a subset of users running the OS, including users running legacy applications that would not be supported on a new version of Windows, gamers who fear their favorite games won’t run as smoothly on a new OS, and users who are simply put off by the touchscreen dynamics of later versions of Windows. There’s also the U.S. Navy which pays $9 million to Microsoft every year for continued technical support of the operating system. 

If you’re still running Windows XP, the best way to maintain security and privacy on the internet is to remain diligent about web browsing, including not clicking on links or downloading attachments from unidentified sources. Downloading and updating antivirus and antispyware software is also important. To maintain Windows virus protection on older versions of the OS: Ad-Aware is still available for free for Windows XP 32 bit version and Web Companion remains available for all versions of Windows XP.