answer:It can continue to run XP indefinitely; from that point of view there is no rush. But if it is running XP, it will be running a 12 year old operating system that is no longer supported by Microsoft, and problems (if you have any) will be difficult to solve, because drivers, software, and so on have moved on. Further, and more important, a Windows XP machine likely has FAR less memory, processing power, etc, than machines being sold today. So even if the software continues to run, the hardware will feel lethargic and laggy. TO say nothing of the fact that the hardware, ebing 10 years old, is at some point going to begin to give you problems (power supply, chips, fan, etc.) So if it were my machine, I would recommend getting a W7 or W8 machine and making the transition, BEFORE it becomes a crisis and you have to do it in a hurry.