Dutch pay €1.7 million to keep Windows XP alive

The Rijksoverheid, central government, is paying another 1.7 million euros to Microsoft so that they can keep using outdated operating system Windows XP. Last year the government already paid 3 million euros for extra support.

In April last year Microsoft stopped the support for Windows XP. Consumers, businesses and even governments were strongly advised to switch to a newer operating system, or to pay extra for another year of support.

The Rijksoverheid needed more time to switch the about 40 thousand computers they use to another operating system and therefore paid the 3 million euros. At the time Minister Stef Blok of Housing and National Service wrote to the parliament that all the computers should be switched by early 2015, NOS reports. This appears not to be the case as about 5 thousand computers are still running on XP. A spokesperson told the newspaper that these computers involve systems that can't be turned off and therefore the operating systems can't easily be switched.

The new agreement is valid for 6 months. This time around it was much more expensive per computer than the previous time, mostly due to the fact that most organizations have now stopped using the 14 year old operating system.