In a recent study conducted by Virus Bulletin, 40 of the most common security programs on the market were tested in Windows XP SP3. Eleven of the programs tested failed to find one hundred percent of known security threats. Security programs that do not meet 100 percent accuracy cannot be awarded Virus Bulletin’s prestigious VB100 award.
According to John Hawes, an analyst at Virus Bulletin, it appears that security companies are focusing more on newer versions of Windows, despite Windows XP accounting for 42.2 percent of all Windows installations in April.
– It seems to be a trend among security companies to reduce support for Windows XP. Many of their products have undergone major adaptations for Windows 8. However, in some cases, minimal efforts have been made to ensure full backward compatibility, which has led to a large number of problems, John Hawes writes in his report.
The results from Virus Bulletin’s latest test of security programs can be read here.
Microsoft has previously announced that support for Windows XP will end in April next year. This means that no security updates will be issued by Microsoft. Most security companies are also expected to end support for the operating system at the same time.
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