An unsupported version of Windows will no longer receive software updates from Windows Update. These include security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware.

And other malicious software, which can steal your personal information. Windows Update also installs the latest software updates to improve the reliability of Windows-new drivers for your hardware and more," writes Microsoft.

To continue support, Windows XP users need to install the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). The company adds that customers running the 64-bit version of Windows XP with SP2 are exempt as there is no SP3 for the 64-bit version, and only those users will be eligible for support and receive updated until April 2014. Microsoft also ended support for all Windows Vista versions without any service packs on April 13th this year. To continue support, users were requested to install the Windows Vista SP2.