14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 reached the end of support in January 2020, but since then, the company has serviced the operating system for companies still running it as part of the ESU program.
The Extended Security Update program included security patches only, and the company provided paying customers with a batch of updates that went live every month as part of the Patch Tuesday cycle.
But with Windows 7 already in its third year of extended security updates, the operating system is getting ready for its final goodbye. The ESU program has already been stopped, so on January 10, the operating system will receive its last security update from Microsoft.
Microsoft urges customers to upgrade to newer Windows
“Organizations can purchase ESU at any time during the three years that the offer is available (2020, 2021, and 2022). If an organization waits and purchases ESU for the first time in year two or year three, they'll also have to pay for the preceding years. It's because the security updates that are offered under the ESU program are cumulative,” Microsoft explains.
“Although organizations can purchase ESU at any time, they won't have received bug fixes or security updates since January 14, 2020 without ESU. Additionally, Microsoft Support no longer provides any form of support for these customers.”
The ESU program, however, provides customers with extended updates for a maximum of three years after an operating system is retired, so now everybody needs to move to a newer release or stick with Windows 7 but face the security risks of running unsupported software.
On the other hand, third-party patching options continue to exist, as 0patch, one of the leading names in this space, will continue to deliver security updates for Windows 7 devices even after Microsoft drops the operating system completely.