Microsoft last Thursday announced through its Website their decision to keep Windows XP, the forerunner of Windows Vista, in sales and in OEM channels until 30 June 2008. Windows XP had previously been scheduled to be taken off shelves and out of OEMs’ hands late in January 2008.

Mike Nash, vice president of Windows Product Management is quoted in a press release as stating:

“Although our research with customers before and since launch has reaffirmed our belief that the previous plan to offer Windows XP through January 2008 would address the needs of most customers, we did get clear feedback that there was a set of customers who needed a bit more time. Feedback from our OEM partners and from customers is that the 30 June 2008 date will address those needs,”

This statement follows an earlier announcement by Microsoft that it was running out of XP product keys after continuing strong sales of the operating system, mainly due to its stability and broad compatibility.

Meanwhile, Vista continues with sluggish sales, failing to win over many businesses after suffering with a number of problems which include endless pop-up boxes asking for permission to do basic tasks from user account control (UAC), increased hardware requirements to make use of the new Aero graphical interface and application compatibility issues

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