MS Windows XP is now officially declared 'less secure'

Windows XP is considerably more prone to malware infection than newer operating systems, Microsoft has said. The company has warned on the dangers of running an unsupported operating system, ahead of its April deadline for ending extended support for Windows XP SP3 next year. Microsoft found that while PCs running newer versions of Windows were just as likely as XP to come across malware, XP's chances of actually being infected were higher. Compared with Windows 8, XP's infection rate was almost six times higher. Microsoft added that XP's infection rate was 1.5 times worse than Vista and three times worse than Windows 7. The company compared PCs running Windows XP SP3, various versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, and Windows 8 during the second quarter of this year. <more>