Microsoft has given a new lease of life to its Windows XP system a few weeks before PC makers were to stop selling it. Windows XP is slated to reach the end of its run on 30th June. However, the firm has now decided that it can continue to be on the market until June 2010 but merely on cheap or low-end desktops.

This decision is similar to one effected a couple of months ago, leading to the extension of the life of XP until the same date (this too for cheaper laptops). It comes as firms like Lenovo, Dell, HP and so on look for loopholes in the firm’s licensing terms so that XP can still be put on machines.

Microsoft made an announcement at Taiwan’s Computex trade show that its decision was owing to suggestions from for customers for putting the Windows XP software on low cost desktops.

Industry experts point out that the move is partly owing to the fact that low cost desktops cannot run the latest version of the operating system, Windows Vista. According to them, many of the low cost machines run Linux, an open source rival to the firm’s operating system. Low cost laptops like the Asus Eee PC have proved very popular.