If Windows 7 finally reached end of extended support last week, organizations will still be able to pay Microsoft to get extended security updates for PCs that can’t be immediately updated to a newer version of Windows. That’s exactly what the German federal government will do this year for 33,000 PCs still running Windows 7 (via ZDNet).
The ESUs (Extended Security Updates) for this massive fleet of PCs will cost the German government a minimum of €800,000 ($886,000) this year, which is quite significant. A report from the German publication Handesblatt explains that the government started migrating its workstations to Windows 10 two years ago, but the process is still ongoing in Germany’s 16 federal states.
Microsoft previously explained that it would provide ESUs to businesses until 2023, but the company would much prefer organizations to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible. Obviously, the same is true for consumers, as running an unsupported OS that’s still quite popular is never recommended.
According to Netmarketshare, 26% of Windows users were still using Windows 7 in December, and that represents millions of PCs. A recent study from security firm BitSight also highlighted that Windows 7 is still “nearly universal” within large enterprises.
