Why do they still use Windows XP?

A lot of Large organizations still use Microsoft Windows XP. Riddled with security vulnerabilities, is there really any excuse for running an obsolete operating system? CERN, NHS etc. can't be that stupid, can they?

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[gcnelite]

Because Windows XP has a cool startup sound and it's awesome and doesn't randomly restart to update.

[viperzero]

Windows XP doesn't force update and reset your computer in middle of a billion dollar experiment.

[hefeteigmeister]

XP is the best Windows ever. That is the actual reason.

[ManaNaito]

I work in a clinical laboratory and we have an instrument that requires Windows NT 4.0. It's a 500 000$ flow cytometer and the vendor will not release a software update because they would have to go trough another round of FDA validation and they would rather sell you the brand new model at 750 000$. That thing is build like a tank and is still functional after 15 years of constant usage, there is no way that the bean counters will approve the expense.

The thing to keep in mind is that a lot of legacy software will not work in a modern OS (I also have 4 pipettors that requires Win 7) but that does not means that these have to be a security risk either. You have to make sure that these old computers have no Internet access (you don't want Suzanne checking her hotmail account on that thing) and that you don't let your staff plug USB drives into them.

[xWalker]

windows xp is lightweight and have great performances, if only microsoft release the source code in order to turn windows xp into a community project

[xxstarbritexx]

Every computer in my school was hit with wannacry.
And since it's the end of the school year we would always play computer games once all the lessons are done, so we all more or less wanted to cry.

[thesupervisordj]

But CERN has been using Linux for years, not Windows.

[mikek]

Several of the doctors I see also still use XP Pro and 7 Enterprise . The XP never is used online, Enterprise is hooked to the internet .

[ArunShankartheRealOne]

As someone who works in Service Industry, I can agree this is true.
But there are also cases where clients don't take Upgrade a serious initiative, they often decide the upgrade cost is not worth it.

I have worked with Clients who stuck to IE8, because they don't want to modify their web apps to render properly on IE11/Chrome.

[seasidegalaxystreet]

I often notice a lot of NHS departments running DELL computer hardware from 2006, 2007, 2008. Which many would say is old now but in true reality there is nothing wrong with such hardware and that it's still proving reliable to this day. I do agree that many specialist software have to be specifically written and designed so across an entire organisation it would cost the earth and do they really need to waste more money just because of new OS? I think not.

[spicydeath]

a large chunk of the government still runs on xp. mostly due to the fact they have special purpose built software that only runs on xp.

[OmegaEnvych]

I worked at medical center in 2012 and they still had ultrasound scanning equipment that ran Windows 2000. Because it was highly customized version of Win 2000, made to work with that specific hardware. Also their computers were running WinXp because software that was needed to sync with that equipment to other hardware was written for Windows 2000 and even with WinXP worked only via some compatibility patches, that didn't work on Vista or 7

[Robin-at-Longcross-UK.]

Another good video Leo - excellent explanation of why health providers/organizations are still using Windows XP.

[jackkraken]

One of the biggest reasons XP is still a thing is that XP is very reliable and stable.
Plus it low system requirements means tons of hardware can still run it. It just works and keeps working and apart from the malware issue it will just keep working. I personally only experience a few BSODs with XP as my main and most of the time I had either installed software that did that or a new piece of hardware.

[kchalu]

Imagine needing to rewrite the drivers for the large hadron collider.

[chomskyanlife]

Really? CERN uses Windows (XP)?!?!? I must have been walking around the labs blindfolded, then!

Look up Scientific Linux.

[ansonx]

I have customers that refuse to upgrade from (anything) to Windows 10 because it LOOKS DIFFERENT, and they can't figure out how to use it (because they've never actually tried).

But a more relevant question: Why on earth would a computer running a nuclear reactor or something be connected to a network/the internet?

[KX]

In my NHS organisation, the only time the OS gets upgraded to a new version of windows is when a PC is discarded and replaced. Most of the PCs in the organisation run XP and there are several thousand of them. The waiting list for new PCs is very long. We had 2 XP machines that took over 30 minutes just to boot and log in and there was a 50:50 chance of crashing and having to start again. We put in for new PCs and had to justify why we needed PCs at all and even then it was nearly 2 years before we got 2 new windows 7 machines. This organisation is now starting to use windows 10 for new PCs but still the majority of PCs running are XP boxes that have been on the waiting list to be replaced since before windows 10 was released. The NHS is still under immense pressure to make the £20bn "efficiency savings" (budget cuts) that the Conservative government demanded of it in 2010 and the main way it's being worked towards is people aren't replaced when they leave/retire and functional equipment isn't replaced.

That's only one reason though. We use software that we have through multi-million pound, decade long contracts and guess what, a lot of it only works on XP. We're contractually obliged to pay millions a year to companies who have no intention of updating their software to work on windows 7 or 10. Being locked into these contracts from before the 2010 budget cuts is also a big problem because e.g. when 70% of a department's budget is a locked-in contract and 25% is staffing and suddenly every department has to cut their budget by 20%, it's not going to happen.

They do change their antivirus provider every year though. Probably with the best of intentions but it just leaves 3 or 4 different antivirus icons sitting in the windows XP system tray popping up balloons saying they're not turned on every time you turn on the PC.

[CobsTech]

A lot of companies as you may have said do it because of budget, XP machines run real fast on old pentium dual cores and P4 HT's, meaning there real cheap to buy saving them a lot of money, and XP is very robust! I'd stay with XP if I could, but 10 is ok for me

[jonvincentmusic]

In the UK, NHS and other public sector organisations have their IT systems managed by private sector contractors, the big players are CSC and HP. The hardware is leased from the private sector contractors, who, not wanting to hurt their bottom line, allow many of their customers' business-critical systems run on outdated architecture and operating systems because they're too miserly to upgrade them.