>>>>http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1101401-windows-xp-like-windows-embedded-pos-2009-supported-until-2019/
>>>>
>>>>http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=11196
>>>
>>>would be very nice - but I looked through my old MSDN but did not find it there. And it's not worth it to get into licensing troubles IMO
>>
>>I think the Neowin poster was thinking out loud:
>>
>>1. Install POSReady 2009 in a VM
>>2. After 2014.04.08, use it to download updates post 2014.04.08
>>3. Copy those downloaded update files to an XP installation and manually install them there
>>
>>The point is all that may be technically feasible.
>>
>>Yes, there are multiple licensing issues e.g. POSReady is for embedded or POS environments so is not licensed to run general XP apps. Also it seems to get updates you need to have some sort of account registered with MS i.e. have bought the POSReady product. Dunno what that might cost but it probably isn't cheap; small orgs will probably be better off financially just upgrading to Win7 or Win8.
>>
>>The existence of POSReady 2009 and its ongoing support means internally MS is still supporting the XP code base out to 2019. Of course, it was already known to be supporting it out to 2015.07.15 because of support for Server 2003. Given that, would it really be that hard for MS to keep supporting XP?
>
>Probably not, but it would make it harder for them to sell Windows 8.1 :)

Hrm... I'd also be worried that applying updates targeted for a different edition of the OS might cause features to get inadvertently disabled or not to function properly. Say for example, certain key low-level modules might have some functions "stubbed out" on Embedded edition (i.e. code in function returns value indicating "feature not available" condition), and replacement of such DLLs would cause certain features to become unavailable (and any other features that might depending on them to not operate correctly).