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Still, although Windows 7 grabbed over 5% of the OS market, according to Net Applications, Windows XP is still the most used platform worldwide with a share of over 69%, with Vista at 18.55%. With the end near for the XP release that made Vista’s successor the ubiquitous OS worldwide, Microsoft is urging customers to upgrade to Windows 7. Microsoft plans to kill Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on July 13, 2010. The Redmond company even has resources available to help customers make the jump from XP to Windows 7.

“With Windows 2000 Server and Client and Windows XP SP2 support ending July 13, 2010 are you aware of all the resources available to help you move to a new client and server operating system?” asked Stephen L. Rose, senior community manager, Windows IT Pro Client. “We have created a End-of-Support Solution Center to help with the planning of your migration strategy from Windows 2000 or Windows XP to Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.”

Windows 7 is, of course, the best choice for an upgrade, especially if the migration also implies a hardware upgrade, as is generally the case for corporate customers. Users that are intent on ridding XP for all it’s got can continue doing so, however, they too must also upgrade, at least to XP SP3. With the third service pack for XP customers will enjoy extended support from Microsoft until 2014.

An additional solution would be upgrades to Windows Vista. Microsoft will offer mainstream support for Vista until 2012, and has yet to reveal plans for extended support. At the same time, customers, be them businesses or home users, will undoubtedly choose Windows 7 over Vista.

In such a case the Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center might come in handy. Microsoft centralized a collection of resources on the Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center designed specifically to ease the migration from Windows 2000 and Windows XP to Windows 7.

“There is no supported migration path from Windows 2000 or Windows XP to Windows 7 using the User State Migration Tool (USMT). You must first upgrade to Windows XP and then migrate to Windows 7 with USMT 4.0 included with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK),” Rose added.