Microsoft is offering unprepared SMBs extended Windows 7 support

INQUIRER staff
02 October 2019

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MICROSOFT WILL OFFER extended support for Windows 7 to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) starting 1 December.

Windows 7 will reach End-of-Life on 14th January 2020, after which it will no longer get free security fixes and updates. However, Microsoft confirmed this week that SMBs can now opt to cough up in order to continue receiving updates

"While many of you are well on your way to deploying Windows 10, we understand that everyone is at a different point in the upgrade process. With that in mind, today we are announcing that, through January 2023, we will extend the availability of paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) to businesses of all sizes," said Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365 in a blog post.

Microsoft had earlier announced that Windows 7 ESU would only be offered to Professional and Enterprise customers with volume licensing arrangements. With this announcement, it is extending the offer to all business customers as long as they have a Microsoft 365 Business subscription and are ready to pay a yearly fee for using the 10-year-old OS.

The ESU programme will continue until January 2023 and will offer security fixes like the ones currently provided to Windows 7 users for free.

SMBs will be able to purchase security updates from qualified Cloud Solution Provider partners on a per device basis. The price for purchasing security updates for Windows 7 after January 2020 are expected to be steep, increasing each year, until January 2023.

The ESU pricing for Windows Pro users goes from $50 per device (first year) to $200 per device (third year). For Windows Enterprise users, the pricing goes from $25 per device (first year) to $100 per device (third year).

In August, Microsoft said that its Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS) customers using Windows 10 Enterprise E5, Government E5, Microsoft 365 E5, and Microsoft 365 E5 Security subscriptions will be able to receive extended security updates for Windows 7 for one more year at no additional cost.

The company has also set up a dedicated 'Microsoft Partner Centre' page to provide detailed information about Windows 7 ESU programme. µ