Met Police still using Windows XP on over 35,000 of its desktops and laptops

A spokesperson tells Computing that the Met Police is moving to Windows 8.1 and has requested a 12-month custom support agreement in the meanwhile

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is still using Windows XP on over 35,000 of its machines, despite support for the ageing operating system having expired a year ago.

Windows XP is 14 years old, and a huge number of firms were still using the operating system until it expired in April 2014. Some organisaitons had signed deals with Microsoft to provide support and security updates across the public sector for a further 12 months - the UK government, for example, signed a £5.5m deal with Microsoft last year.

Private organisations were urged to upgrade to newer versions of the Microsoft operating system as users of XP could be more prone to new vulnerabilities as a result of Microsoft no longer releasing patches and updates to secure the system.

And according to a freedom of information request made by Motherboard, the Met Police still has 35,640 desktop and laptop computers running Windows XP. However, it could not release figures of exactly how many machines were using the system in each department as the Met Police stated that many systems are shared and do not necessarily belong to an individual.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Computing: "The Met Police has an active upgrade programme to move users onto the latest released Windows 8.1 operating system. However, since Windows XP support will still be required, the MPS has requested a direct option with Microsoft to continue a custom support agreement for Windows XP for the next 12 months. This is currently being negotiated directly with Microsoft."

When Computing asked whether any more information could be given in terms of costs of the agreement, the Met Police spokesperson said that there was no further information that they could provide.

Despite the potential security issues in continuing to use Windows XP, some organisations aren't fearful of remaining on the system in the short term. Waste management and recycling firm Biffa was still using Windows XP across the majority of its desktop end-user systems in July last year, and its group IT director, David Gooding, questioned the business case for upgrading from it. However, the company did decide to slowly migrate to Windows 7.