German news outlet Handelsblatt reports the Ministry missed the deadline for upgrade. Now, it must pay Microsoft a fee for each of its 33,000 Windows 7 machines. It is worth noting the fee is not to upgrade to Windows 10 but to instead extend security support on Win7 for another year. The total cost for this is around $887,000. Despite Microsoft’s efforts to warn users to upgrade, millions of devices remain on Windows 7. Importantly, the majority of these machines are within organizations. Microsoft does provide Extended Security Updates (ESU), but at a cost. For organizations with hundreds or thousands of machines, the cost is huge. For example, it costs around $25 per machine for ongoing security support for Windows 7 Enterprise. For Windows Pro users, the price increases to $50 per machine.
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Microsoft will continue to offer ESU beyond 2020. Indeed, to renew updates for 2021, Windows 7 Enterprise users will have to pay $50 per machine and then $100 per machine in 2022. For Pro users, the price moves to $100 in 2021, and $200 in 2022. Some organizations with thousands of machines can negotiate discounts. Many Win7 users have already jumped ship to Windows 10 following an aggressive campaign from Microsoft over the last year. However, Windows 7 had a vast install base and many millions of users are still on the platform.
