Government axes XP for good

Extended-support agreement will not be renewed

The government has announced public sector devices running Windows XP will no longer be supported after it decided not to renew its extended-support agreement.

Windows XP reached the end of support a year ago, and CRN exclusively revealed the government was on the brink of signing the extended-support agreement.

The news came after CRN research found that 20 per cent of public sector devices would still be running the ancient OS after the deadline, sparking security fears from many in the channel.

In a blog post today, the government admitted that not all public sector devices have moved on from the OS yet, but said security risks would be small.

"There has been good progress in moving away from Windows XP across departments and government organisations and with many public bodies this transition is complete," it said.

"We expect most remaining government devices using Windows XP will be able to mitigate any risks, using the CESG [GCHQ division] guidance. Where this is not possible, they may need to review their own short-term transition support."

It added that the end of XP should not have come as a surprise to the public sector.

"All departments have had seven years' warning of the 2014 end of normal support and this one-year agreement was put together with the support of technology leaders to give everyone a chance to get off XP," it said.