Microsoft's XP operating system is to live for a bit longer after the software company announced it would be extending its retail life by six months.

Earlier in the year, equipment manufacturers had their access to XP cut off, while other vendors were offering downgrade capability to users by bundling in a copy of the popular operating system as an alternative to Windows Vista.

The original date for the sales cut-off was January 31st 2009 but has since been rolled back to July 31st 2009, with netbook makers unaffected as they were allowed to provide XP until 2010, given the computers’ inability to deal with the more demanding Vista.

Microsoft also stated that support for XP would be made available until 2014.

This week, Microsoft and GoDaddy announced that they were to join forces in launching an email system for small and medium-sized enterprises in a move which will also accommodate mobile, group and single user email plans.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'