Windows XP support costs to double

Windows XP
Costs will double to see this for another year

Enterprises that want to continue using Windows XP face a hike in the price of support as Microsoft continues to try to persuade companies to leave it behind in favour of a newer model.

A licensing expert, who spoke to Computerworld on the condition of anonymity, explained that the per-PC price for Microsoft's custom support agreements (CSAs) for XP will rocket to $400 (around £259, or AU$511) for any enterprise looking to carry on with support.

XP remains on 15 percent of PCs

The original Windows XP CSAs cost $200 (around £129, or AU$255) per PC with a $250,000 (around £161,899, or AU$319,715) cap and the same expert reports firms that have slashed the OS usage in half in the first year will continue to enjoy support at the same price.

Many organisations, including the UK government, still rely on Windows XP and figures from IT security company Secunia showed that around 15.17 percent of the world's computers are still running Windows XP.

Via: Computerworld