So I was reading that after Windows XP support ends in one years time it will become vulnerable to malware attacks as a result of this. I don't understand why this is so if there is virus protection installed such as McAfee ? Also I have Windows Vista so its support could end next and it to could become vulnerable to attacks ? Does this mean that eventually I'll be forced to install Windows 8 then ?
All it means is that Microsoft won't be releasing updates for Windows XP after April 8th 2014. Because most of the updates for Windows are security updates, yes, it could be argued that you are more vulnerable to attacks. However, if you browse safely and have anti-virus protection, you should be OK.
I think what you will find though is that once Microsoft drop support for XP next year, most programs will require at least Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 to run, so finding an anti-virus which supports XP may be a little harder than it is now once support has been dropped.
At the end of the day, it will be about 12 and a half years old by April next year, so I think upgrading to something newer would be a good idea. As said above, I think as soon as Microsoft drop support for XP, you'll find that a lot of new software releases won't work with it.
I believe support for Office 2003 also ends on April 8th 2014 and support for Windows Server 2003 ends in 2015, so that's probably going to affect quite a lot of businesses.