The British government has no plans to rush to upgrade systems across its public services however, and has reportedly signed a £5.548 million deal with Microsoft to continue support through the Redmond giant's "custom support" program.
Brits are not the only ones paying for continued support either; the Dutch are also reportedly using Microsoft's custom support options for over 30,000 computers still running the XP operating system.
The U.S. government also reportedly has hundreds of thousands of systems still running the ageing operating system, for which it will require its own deal with Microsoft.
To be fair to Microsoft, the company has been warning about the EOS for Windows XP for years.
Sources and Recommended Reading:
Dutch, British governments pay to keep Windows XP alive: www.arstechnica.com/