Bad News for XP Users!

Microsoft XP Will Not Support Windows

Microsoft will not release the new Internet Explorer 9 on Windows XP. Microsoft’s Ryan Gavin announced that IE9 hardware acceleration will not be released for IE8 and IE9 will not be released for older Windows XP.

With Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft’s focus is on Windows 7. Investing in the successful operating system, Microsoft is taking advantage of Windows 7’s innovations in IE9.

Hardware acceleration, available in DirectX 10 and later, handles the graphics that the browser brings to the screen, lightening the processor load and making it faster. However, DX10 and higher versions are not supported under Windows XP.

This makes millions of Windows XP users a good target for Chrome and Firefox. Firefox uses an intermediary layer to communicate with DirectX under XP. Chrome will use OpenGL drivers for hardware acceleration.

Windows XP accounts for 53 percent of the world’s operating systems. Windows 7 has reached 22 percent with a rapid exit.