Microsoft won't extend Windows 7 Extended Security Updates. Server gets another year

Microsoft's popular Windows 7 operating system reached the end of its support lifecycle in January 2020. The company launched ESU, Extended Security Updates, for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 at the same time. Officially only available for businesses and Enterprise customers, ESU guaranteed a support extension by up to three years.

January 2022 marks the end of the second year of ESU for Windows 7, and the year that begins afterwards will be the last. Microsoft announced this week that it won't extend the ESU program for Windows 7 after January 2023. Organizations and businesses that still use Windows 7 devices won't receive updates anymore for the operating system after January 2023.

For Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 7 Professional for Embedded Systems, the Extended Security Update (ESU) Program will be entering its third and final year of extended support beginning on February 8, 2022 and ending on January 10, 2023.

For Server, things are a bit different. Windows Server 2008 products will receive an extension, by a year, according to Microsoft.

For Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for Embedded Systems and Windows Server 2008 SP2 for Embedded Systems if running on Microsoft Azure, ESU will have one additional year of extended support available beginning on February 14, 2023, ending on January 9, 2024.

It is unclear at this point whether the price of a year 4 ESU subscription will double again. When Microsoft launched ESU, it revealed that the pricing of it would double each year. The cost of ESU for Windows 7 Professional is $200 per device in the third year, for Windows 7 Enterprise $100 per device in the third year.

The Enterprise edition costs for ESU are also the costs that Windows Server customers have to pay to extend support for a server product. Microsoft did not reveal if it plans to double the price in the fourth year again; this would reach $200 for the fourth year if true.

Closing Words

Support for Windows 7 ends on January 10, 2023 and it looks as if there is no option to extend support further. While Microsoft did release security updates for out of support devices occasionally in the past, there is no guarantee that it will do so for Windows 7. Third-party options, like the one provided by 0Patch, may be worth a look if support needs to be extended.

Now You: which version of Windows do you run? (via Dr. Windows)

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