To all those users of older versions of Windows this message is for you.

More than 70 million Windows users will no longer be eligible for software security updates under a Microsoft Corp. policy to take effect July 11, hastening the demise of several older versions of the computer operating system.

Microsoft will end support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Special Edition (SE) and Windows Millennium Edition (ME). That means users of those versions will no longer have the protection of software fixes issued by Microsoft, potentially leaving them exposed to attack when hackers exploit previously unknown flaws in the operating systems
Microsoft had planned to stop supporting the older versions in January 2004, but it extended support to give customers and businesses more time to upgrade to newer versions of Windows.

At the end of 2005, licensed installations of Windows 98 and Windows ME made up more than 13 percent of Microsoft’s user base, according to Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC, a Framingham, Mass., market-research firm. IDC estimates that about 48 million computers were still running licensed versions of Windows 98 at the end of last year, and 25 million were running Windows ME.

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