There. Fixed it for you.
As a part time Microsoft contractor, I can tell you there are a lot of good reasons to get off of XP.
First of all, the kernel is based on 15 year-old technology. It is version 5, as in NT 5.0, the planned successor to Windows NT 4.0, released in 1996. The then new kernel 5 was developed in 1998/99, but Bill Gates had the release name changed from Windows NT 5.0 to Windows 2000 in mid/late 1999. The name was changed as a gimmick to lead people to believe Windows 2000 had the Y2K problem fixed. If you type “ver” into a Command Prompt on Windows 2000, it shows as Version 5.0. Ver on Windows XP is Version 5.1, and Ver on Windows Server 2003 shows as Version 5.2.
The kernel was completely redesigned in 2006 as Longhorn, and released as Windows Vista in 2007 and Windows Server 2008 in early 2008. A ver on these machines show the kernel Version of 6000, which is 6 (why the zeros? I think they wanted to emphasis the big changes, but it is kind of ridiculous).
So why is this important? Well, we reached the point, sometime ago actually, where the V5 kernel cannot be patched to remedy sophisticated attacks that have had 15 years of legacy and development. Continuing to use XP makes you VERY vulnerable to these types of attacks, and puts your infrastructure and data at great risk. Why assume the risk?
The V6 kernel has removed the code that allows all kinds of unauthorized take-overs of system processes and services. No doubt as years go on there will be future exploits that may get around these changes but that does not change the high vulnerability of the V5 kernel.
Change is change. The tricks and loops that the V5 kernel had to do in order to run on the limited 1999/2000 era hardware doesn’t have to be done any longer—hardware has turned over several generations since then. The V6 kernel, in my opinion, is getting long in the tooth, and needs a complete redesign into V7, which will come soon. I imagined everyone will hate that, too, LOL!
It’s one thing to assume a risk on your home computing environment because you do not care for the new UI, but quite another to do so in the business world. It would be, in my opinion, close to malpractice for a business IT department to want to continue running a V5 kernel. I know it is a well known practice in the business world to replace desktops every 5-7 years and servers are kept not much longer (although I’ve seen some old boxes survive due to budget cuts). Why would you want to keep 15 year-old software around? There has been so many advances since, both in hardware and software!
Finally, the bottom line is that Microsoft will no longer support or provide updates, security or otherwise, for Windows XP after this coming June. For them, it is not so much as business decision based on new profits but rather on liability. Lawyers of companies that may lose a lot of money from a well-known attack being successful against them, try to blame the vendor of that software for their loss, and Microsoft will not continue to be in that position.
Get out of XP and upgrade to the V6 kernel!