With the end of Microsoft's support for Windows XP coming on April 8th, it appears that at least one major government agency is working to have the company offer extended patch support past its deadline as part of its migration plans.
The Register reports that the UK's National Health Service is in talks with Microsoft on such a plan, which will include the company offering software patches for the agency's over 1 million Windows XP PCs until those computers can be upgraded to a more recent version of the OS.
A specific price tag for this extra support has not been revealed. However, as we have reported before, Microsoft does offer large businesses and organizations what it calls "Custom Support" for legacy programs. Microsoft negotiates the prices for this special patch support for each company on a case-by-case basis, but some analysts believe that it could charge as much as $200 a year for each PC that is under such a "Custom Support" plan.
Adrian Foxall, the head of the application migration company Camwood, is quoted in the article as saying the NHS custom support plan is likely designed to migrate all of the agency's PCs off of Windows XP in less than a year's time.
Source: The Register
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