As the Windows 7 End-of-cycle nears Microsoft are thinking about launching a campaign that gives paid extended support to users. Microsoft will stop supporting Windows from January 14th 2020 with the company planning to provide paid plans for extended support.
Many large corporations are still using Windows 7
Microsoft's Windows 7 still has a considerable share in the Operating System market. There are still a large amount of business customers who are using the older version of the operating system. Migrating from older versions of the Windows Operating System is a slow process for large companies to implement.
Windows 7 Extended Security Updates will be sold on per-license basis with the price of support increasing each year. The ESUs will be available to all the customers who are using Windows 7 Professional or Enterprise subscriptions. Microsoft are also planning to start volume-licensing agreements with Windows Software Assurance. Windows 7 ESU will be supported till 2023.
How is Microsoft planning to support Windows 7 customers?
Users of Windows 7 will need to accept Custom Support Agreements which are only enabled for Enterprise Customers whom will continue to receive security updates when the product is no longer officially supported.
The extended upgrades will only be available to customers with deep pockets and who also participate in active premier support agreements. There is also a specific engineering team allocated for these customers that FastTrack the ticket process and have a Microsoft engineer ready to fix any individual issues.
Microsoft are also planning to extend the Windows Analytics Service and integrate with the ConfigMgr to create a new service called Desktop Analytics which will help customers to check the readiness of the Windows Office clients.
