It is truly the OS that will not die: No matter what you think about Windows XP’s successors, the Little OS That Could has reportedly been given yet another reprieve from the high-tech dustbin. AppleInsider claims that Microsoft has agreed to another extension on sales of Windows XP, at least for Hewlett-Packard, the largest manufacturer of Windows-based PCs in the country. The new extension "assuming the report is accurate" allows sales of XP bundled with new PCs through April 30, 2010, allowing HP an extra nine months of sales.

The news puts all parties — HP, Microsoft, and consumers — in a strange situation, as Microsoft formally retired XP from shrinkwrapped sales long ago (in June 2008). More importantly, on April 14 of this year, Microsoft will end standard technical support for XP, too.

So-called extended support will be offered for XP for five more years (through April 8, 2014), which means the OS will still receive security patches and critical fixes, but the software will no longer receive feature upgrades after April 14, barely a week from now. More critically, customers will not receive any free tech support from Microsoft (though paid plans will still be available) and the company will not honor any warranty claims for XP, either.

Via Yahoo News

Transbar is the tiny little application for those who are looking for an easy way to add some transparency to there windows XP taskbar. This could be used in situations where you have an “extra cool wallpaper” on your desktop and you think the taskbar is stealing away its beauty.

Weighing just 88kb this tool helps you add transparency to your windows XP taskbar with just few clicks. But for our Windows Vista users, this application is not required considering Windows Vista installation already supports the Aero Glass which not only makes your Taskbar semi-transparent but it also blurs the background a bit.

This might not be a tool with loads of features but its ‘tiny little time consuming’ feature gives your taskbar an attractive look.

Download Transbar here.