Windows XP

16.37% users still run Windows XP

PUNE: More than 16% of all personal computer users who agreed to provide data to the distributed global Kaspersky Security Network were still working on computers running Windows XP in June 2014. This fact carries potential implications for information security, said findings from the 'Windows usage and vulnerabilities re-search' carried out by Kaspersky Lab experts in the summer of 2014.

Users whose computers run under a dated operating system or have out-of-date versions of installed software risk coming under attack from malware that exploits vulnerabilities.

The study also looked at individual countries to assess the proportion of Windows XP users among all users of Kaspersky Lab's Windows-based products in each country. Vietnam was the leader, with 38.79% of users still preferring to work un-der Windows XP. Next came China with 27.35%, India with 26.88%, and Algeria with nearly a quarter (24.25%) of users still remaining loyal to the legendary op-erating system. Roughly one in five computers protected by a Kaspersky Lab prod-uct still runs under Windows XP in Italy (20.31%) and Spain (19.26%). A smaller proportion of users - 4.52% continues to use Windows XP in the USA.

Although technical support for Windows XP users was only discontinued in April 2014, the sales of this operating system finished back in 2010. This, however, did not have much effect on its popularity: according to Kaspersky Lab data in June 2011, a year after the end of sales, 48.86% of users were still using Windows XP. After another year, in June 2012, there were 35.64%, and in June 2013, 25.42% of Windows XP users.