This is powering ATMs at my place, wonder why most of the times they don't work.

Actually the majority of ATMs worldwide run XP.

XP is pretty secure *cough*

@caillou they are usually only connected to the internal network.

Talked with a windows sys admin a few years back and he showed me some tools to strip down most insecure/unstable services from the install kit.

In the case of banks, I think they can get a locked down kit from MS directly. Still too much OS just to run the ATM app, but hey, at least they have support from MS.

Security releases are not even supported for XP now so how the hell are getting away with this

This is not uncommon by far. Many cash registries in supermarkets for example also still run on WinXP Embedded.
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wi...

@MichaelJJames Large companies can pay Microsoft tons of money for extended support. Although that only lasts until a certain date.

Well, in Ukraine they run their own Linux distro) That moment when you proud of your country) =}