Stata + Windows XP compatibility

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Dear Statalisters,

I've noticed that Windows XP no longer appears in the list of supported platforms / compatible operating systems (both terms are used in the online pages):
https://www.stata.com/products/compa...ating-systems/

At the same time there are still occasional mentions of XP such as "Stata will run on any Novell or Windows 8/7/Vista/XP network. Stata will also run on Unix-based or Mac-based networks."
https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/w...-requirements/
https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/windows/large-datasets-and-memory/ (I know this one is old, but the date is not mentioned anywhere on the page).

I would like to find out:
1. whether Windows XP is "not supported" or "not compatible" (the difference is explained here);
2. if there are actual problems what are they (please assume away the security problems, do you get the right computational results)? and which version of Stata became incompatible with XP (13? 14? 15?)

Thank you, Sergiy Radyakin

[Alan Riley (StataCorp)]

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP in April of 2014.

We believe Stata 15 works on Windows XP and have not had reports from users of any problems. However, we are no longer supporting Stata on Windows XP and no longer run builds on it for testing purposes. We recommend (as does Microsoft) that users move to a more modern operating system for security reasons having strictly to do with Windows XP (and nothing to do with Stata).

Although we are not aware of any incompatibilities currently between Stata and Windows XP, there is no guarantee that some may not arise in the future, which is a second reason for us to recommend users migrate away from Windows XP.

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Dear Alan,

thank you very much for providing the explanation.
This fully answers my question.

Best, Sergiy