Windows 7 receives support for large customers three years longer

For a fee, Microsoft will provide security updates for large customers using Windows 7 up to and including January 2023. The offer only applies to customers who have volume licensing agreements with Microsoft and the price increases year after year.

Mainstream support for Windows 7 already expired in 2015, which means that the OS will no longer receive any new functionalities. We are still in the extended support phase for the beloved operating system; security updates will be made until January 14, 2020.

Customers with volume licensing agreements can therefore receive three years of extra support. In addition, customers with subscriptions to Windows Software Assurance or Windows 10 Enterprise of Education receive a discount on these so-called Windows 7 Extended Security Updates . An amount is not mentioned in this offer, but Microsoft expert Mary Jo Foley states that in the past it was ‘several million dollars’.

At the same time, Microsoft is announcing the Desktop App Assure service. This service is offered at no extra cost to customers with Windows 10 Enterprise and Education. Microsoft says research has shown that 99 percent of apps that work on Windows 7 also work on Windows 10, even with future W10 updates. The Redmond company therefore calls this service alive to ensure that the remaining 1 percent can be reported to Microsoft, after which an engineer starts using it. MS says they are “fully committed to compatibility as a stumbling block to completely removing Windows 10”.