Businesses can now pay to extend Windows 7 security updates through 2023

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

The extended security update offer comes alongside longer support cycles for Office 365 ProPlux on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2016.

While Windows 10 Enterprise and Education customers are getting a longer support cycle for major feature updates today, Microsoft is also throwing a bone to business customers still running Windows 7.

Microsoft announced today (opens in new tab) that it will offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) through January 2023. Sold at a per-device cost, the service is available for all Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise customers with volume licensing. The price will continue to increase each year through 2023.

The ESU program will give customers a lifeline past Windows 7's current extended support, which is set to end in January of 2020. Those who opt into the program will also continue to enjoy support for Office 365 ProPlus through the 2023 end date.

Office 365 ProPlus and 2016 changes

In keeping with the "extended support" theme, Office 365 ProPlus will continue to be supported on Windows 8.1 through January 2023, when Microsoft is set to end support for the OS. Windows Server 2016 users will also be able to take advantage of Office 365 ProPlus through October of 2025.

Finally, Microsoft revealed it will extend mainstream support for Office 2016 connectivity for Office 365 services through October of 2023. This is a revision of the original October 13, 2020, cutoff date that Microsoft announced in February. After the 2023 cutoff, users will have to move to Office 365 ProPlus or the Office 2019 to connect to Office 365 services.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

2 Comments
  • Boo.... How dare evil Micro$oft exploit its users by requiring them to pay to extend the life of an obsolete OS!!!
  • Actually, we are doing the same. June 2019 our Win7-Client will run out of service (and our next LTS-Release 2019-1 will no longer support the old Client). The current LTS-Version 2017-2 (we do 3-4 releases per year) will have support until June 2020, after that only payed by hour. Since we have no customers with windows 8, we most likely will drop our Silverlight Store client also.