China Sticks With Windows XP To Avoid The Cost Of Upgrades

The government of China has decided to patch Windows XP, following the geriatric operating system's end-of-sale in early April, rather than upgrade their systems.

Around 70 per cent of consumers in the country have also opted to stick with the twelve-year old system, compared with an average of 27 per cent globally.

China's huge population obviously leaves it with a huge demand for computing equipment.

Although most home copies in the country are illegally obtained, according to The Inquirer, the government in China purchases its licenses for £84 a pop.

"Security problems could arise because of a lack of technical support after Microsoft stopped providing services, making computers with XP vulnerable to hackers," said Senior Chinese official Yan Xiaohong, before adding that having to upgrade the systems would be "fairly expensive and will increase government procurement costs.

In the aim of continuing with Windows XP for as long as possible, China is looking at using third-party patches provided by security companies.

The UK government also decided to stall upgrading its IT systems and strike a deal with Microsoft, which will provide patches to any Whitehall computers still running Windows XP until any upgrades occur.

The expiry of the operating system has placed any computer still running it in danger, as hackers and scammers exploit bugs that Microsoft is no longer working on fixing.