Despite high hopes after a comment by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft has no plans to extend the availability of its successful Windows XP operating system past its June 30 deadline.

"Our plan for Windows XP availability is unchanged. We're confident that's the right thing to do based on the feedback we've heard from our customers and partners," said Microsoft in a statement.

Microsoft could reconsider its decision to phase out its Windows XP operating system in June, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer reportedly said during a conference held at Louvain-La-Neuve University in Belgium.

The Redmond-based company has announced that starting June 30 will stop selling Windows XP to computer makers and retailers. However, the company will offer technical support until April 2009 and extended support until April 2014.

"XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," said Ballmer quoted by Reuters.

Microsoft’s CEO explained that the people from the IT departments are very interested by Windows XP, because very often they are working with older machines, which are not suitable for Windows Vista.

Last week, during Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professionals in Seattle, CEO Steve Ballmer said that Windows Vista it’s “a work in progress”, but it’s “bigger than XP”. He also noted that there are still a lot of customers using Windows XP, and at the same time, there are a lot of customers who opted for Windows Vista.

Released in January 2007, Windows Vista was presented by Microsoft as an OS superior to Windows XP in all aspects, from features to security, but apparently the company has failed to impress the business customers. On April 4, Microsoft announced that Windows XP will be still available on the ultra-low-cost PCs until 30, 2010, because Windows Vista is too hardware-demanding.

Also, the Associated Press reported that some 160,000 users have signed a “Save Windows XP” online petition.