The Windows 7 will receive a new lease on life after Microsoft decided to extend its security updates beyond the January 2020 deadline.
Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Office and Windows Marketing, announced the development on Thursday, citing that they decided to extend Windows 7 updates since everyone is at a divergent point in the upgrade process. It can be brought to mind that even though Windows 10 has been installed on 700 million devices, about 184 million commercial PCs are still running Windows 7.
"As previously announced, Windows 7 extended support is ending January 14, 2020. While many of you are already well on your way in deploying Windows 10, we understand that everyone is at a different point in the upgrade process," Spataro said.
Spataro added that the Extended Service Updates will be made available for Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Pro customers in Volume Licensing. The move drew a comparison to Microsoft's action four years ago when it pulled the plug on Windows XP's extended support before offering paid support sometime after that.
Security Updates Are Costly
While the move will give Windows 7 users another three years to nomadize to Windows 10, availing on the Extended Security Updates will cost a fortune as the service will be made available on a per-device basis and the price will increase each year. This would also mean that users, which are currently using Windows Home won't be able to get the updates.
Meanwhile, customers who are equipped with a Windows software assurance plan will get a discount on the updates along with discounts on Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Enterprise bundles. Other than Windows 7, Office 365 ProPlus will also be able to receive the functioning Windows 7 Extended Security Updates through 2023.
Prior to the announcement, Microsoft had previously ordered that Windows 7 PCs running Office 365 ProPlus will also expire on 2020. In connection with the Office 365 ProPlus, Microsoft has also revealed that it will be releasing a Desktop App Assure service, which can be used to address Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus compatibility issues.
Simultaneously, Microsoft also revealed that it will be offering Office 365 ProPlus on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2016. Office 365 ProPlus will support Windows 8.1 until 2023 and up till 2025 on Windows Server 2016.
Computer World notes that further information about the Extended Security Updates will likely be available later this month. In the announcement, Spataro mentioned that Microsoft will elaborate on its support policy changes during the Ignite Conference, which is scheduled on Sept. 24-28.
