A Greek developer wil be launching the unofficial Windows XP SP4 update in the coming weeks, after saying he was unhappy that Microsoft had withdrawn support for the antiquated operating system.
the developer, named simply harkaz started working on the update in September and says he almost has a beta version ready for testers.
He decided to collate all Microsoft's previous releases and will make the download available to anyone, for free on sites including Softpedia.
He said he decided to develop the software because there are lots of users, just like him who want to continue using the 13-year-old operating system.
"Many users including me who won't be able to upgrade their old machines to a newer OS would like to easily install all Windows updates in one convenient package. For this reason, I started working on a Service Pack 4 package," he said.
Harkaz said the update can be installed by anyone who is running Windows XP1 or later, but those using the download must understand it is not officially supported by Microsoft and anyone experiencing problems should not contact the PC-maker.
He added: "If you decide to install this service pack, keep in mind that it's not related to Microsoft in any way and is just an unofficial release that might or might not help you protect a Windows XP computer against vulnerabilities found in the operating system.
"Of course, Microsoft does not recommend anyone to install this, but such a service pack is clearly worth a shot if you're still on Windows XP and you don't plan to upgrade anytime soon."
Microsoft ended support for Windows XP in April this year, but it would seem there's still a fair few using the operating system. In June, Netmarketshare's report found that a quarter of Windows users were still using a machine running Windows XP.
