Apple has announced that starting on May 25th 2018, iTunes will no longer be supported on Windows XP, Vista, and on Apple TV 1st generation. According to Apple this is because of security changes that will prevent Windows XP, Vista, and Apple TV 1st from using certain features of the iTunes store.
According to the support article, starting in May, Windows XP and Vista users will not be able to make new purchases using the iTunes Store or download previous purchases. In order to make purchases or access your previously purchased content, you will need to use iTunes on a Windows 7 or newer operating system.
For Apple TV generation 1 users, they will no longer be able to access the iTunes store at all. In order to access the iTunes Store from Apple TV, you must be using a Gen 2 version or newer.
While Apple has not specifically disclosed the security changes that will be taking place, it could be that they are dropping support for certain encryption algorithms that are no longer supported on older operating systems. BleepingComputer has reached out to Apple regarding the security changes, but had not heard back at the time of the publication of this article.
In the meantime, if you wish to continue using iTunes on your computer and are using older operating systems, you should upgrade to Windows 7, if possible, or Windows 10 before May 25th. Otherwise you will lose a great deal of functionality within the program.
First H/T TheVerge
