explains that the security of their products is something that the software titan takes very seriously. This, along with the fact that several companies and organizations encouraged users to abandon Internet Explorer in favor of a supported web browser is probably the reason why the company decide to fix this flaw at light speed. Throw in the fact that this flaw was unearthed so close to the retirement, and you get the drift:
“We made this exception based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP. The reality is there have been a very small number of attacks based on this particular vulnerability and concerns were, frankly, overblown. Unfortunately this is a sign of the times and this is not to say we don’t take these reports seriously. We absolutely do.”At the same time, Hall makes it clear that even though Microsoft have fixed Windows XP this time around, everyone should still make moving to a newer version of the OS a priority. This, truly, is something that will not happen over and over again.]]>
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Sounds like they didn’t want to take the PR hit from this, which I disagree with personally. I think the PR hit is temporary. Continuing XP is just delaying the inevitable.
They can spin it however they want, but I think it’s a bad decision. You can only put a bandaid over XP for so long. Truth is, it needs much more than a bandaid. It’s an OS from over a decade ago!
I think the risk for Microsoft is that something goes badly wrong because of the lack of security patches and that, despite all the warnings to people to upgrade, the XP die-hards will still hold Microsoft accountable and complain loudly. On that basis Microsoft probably decided to avoid the pain and cost of bad publicity by the lesser pain and cost of fixing the problem.