Technology: Always Changing, Always Adapting

Most folks would agree that computers have made business much easier, but that doesn't mean working with computers is particularly easy. All software has imperfections, and it seems like software updates are a frequent part of our business life. This is true for software from companies serving specific industries, like Realtrac, as well as software giants like Microsoft.

One big decision Microsoft announced years ago was that it was no longer providing updates for Windows XP, an incredibly popular operating system that has been used for fourteen years and counting. Microsoft stopped selling Windows XP in 2008 and officially stopped supporting and updating it mid-2014. Though it didn't have an immediate effect, a year later, the ripples from this decision are reaching the shores of Realtrac as well as many Realtrac users.

Intuit, the parent family of QuickBooks, has declared it will no longer support QuickBooks users on Windows XP. With Sage’s release of Sage 50 2016, released July 9, 2015, they too decided to officially cease support for Windows XP.

At some point in the future, Realtrac will also be forced to stop supporting Windows XP. Microsoft, Sage, Intuit (3 partners of Realtrac) have all abandoned Windows XP as a platform.

As of July 2015, Realtrac technicians have begun tracking the versions of Windows that our customers use. Once we know the scale of the situation, we will communicate our Windows XP support path to the Realtrac community.

When the day arrives that we stop supporting Windows XP, we will make sure we don’t leave any Realtrac users out in the cold. The Realtrac 10 software on their computers will continue to function, but these users will unfortunately be ineligible for future Realtrac updates, bug fixes, and new features and modules. Eventually, Realtrac will no longer support these older clients, but we will continue to communicate with our customers through our newsletter, Learning Center, and on social media. Hopefully, as this initial message shows, we're very intent on not surprising anyone, nor moving too quickly on this issue.

Please stay up to date with us on these updates. Whether we like it or not, we're reliant on these technologies to make our businesses run, so time and care must be spent to make sure we have all the necessary tools.

Thank you.