Issue
Microsoft announced: XP’s end of life is in April 2013. What are you going to do with the controller ?
Note
The GT controller is basically a real-time data handler and product tracker, it does not really need anything changed unless it is your wish. If the PC hardware is running and in operation, you can expect it to run many more years regardless of what Microsoft says.
XP Embedded
While the first Windows controller work on standard XP, the latest controller runs Windows XP embedded which is a special Windows that is prepared for real-time Systems, different from standard Windows XP. It is a subset of Windows XP with an added real-time kernel. Having too many services can make the system miss occurrences which is fatal for a real-time machine. That’s why we do not want anti-virus and other self-starting programs installed in controllers.
Windows XP embedded announced end of life is January 31, 2017. Please see it in https://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/product-lifecycles.aspx
How do I see my version ?
Go to control panel and double-click on system. This is the new one, notice 2 CPU. 2 GB RAM
This is the one from 2002, notice 1 CPU. 1 GB RAM