Astute Windows users have pointed out the Achilles Heel of Microsoft's plea for help in getting customers to dump Windows XP: The lack of a smooth upgrade path to Microsoft's newest OS, Windows 8.1.



From Computerworld:

"Wait. Wait. Wait just a minute here," wrote someone identified as "nephilim" in a comment added Thursday to a Microsoft blog. "You are suggesting I upgrade people from XP to Windows 8.x? But that's impossible. There is a major problem with [Microsoft's] suggestion. You (Microsoft) have made Windows 8 and 8.1 incapable of upgrading from Windows XP. I simply can't upgrade anyone, including myself, to Windows 8. It's impossible."

Nephilim was reacting to a Feb. 7 pitch by Microsoft that asked its technically-adroit customers to help friends and family still running Windows XP ditch the OS in favor of Windows 8.1. Microsoft will deliver the last public patches for the XP on April 8, after which users will be on their own, and -- as security professionals have pointed out -- in the crosshairs of cyber criminals.

  Users mock Microsoft for asking their help on XP-to-Windows 8.1 upgrades