Windows 10: Would you pay Microsoft for extended Windows 7 support?

Windows 7 support ends in January 2020 and there is nothing that consumers and small business customers-- read non-Enterprise customers -- can do about it. Microsoft won't release security updates, any update to be precise, for consumer versions of Windows 7 after January 2020.

Microsoft announced last year that it would offer paid extended support options to volume licensing customers.

The company did not reveal any pricing back then but mentioned that support would be extended for a maximum of three years after support end and that extending support would become more expensive per year.



Mary Jo Foley got her hands on the extended support costs and other information related to extending the support period of the Windows 7 operating system.

Microsoft will charge Enterprise customers the following amount of money per year and device according to her information:

Windows 7 Professional

• Year 1 -- $50 per device
• Year 2 -- $100 per device
• Year 3 -- $200 per device

Windows 7 Enterprise

• Year 1 -- $25 per device
• Year 2 -- $50 per device
• Year 3 -- $100 per device

The extended support period begins in January 2020 when Windows 7 support ends officially and it ends in January 2023 for good. Customers need to pay Microsoft for the first year to be eligible for support in the second, and for the second year to be eligible for extended support in the third year.

There is no minimum purchase necessary; extended support means that Microsoft will provide customers with cumulative security updates for the Windows 7 operating system for each year payments are made.

It is up for debate whether extended support costs "two arms and three legs" as Woody Leonhard sees it, or whether it is reasonable when companies weight the costs of extended support against the costs of upgrading systems and training employees.

I'd like to look at a hypothetical and unrealistic scenario:

Would you pay Microsoft for extended support?


Microsoft offers support extensions for Windows 7 only to Enterprise customers. What if Microsoft would make the same offer to Home users?

Would you, if you run a device with Windows 7, pay Microsoft for extended support? It would cost $350 to extend support by three years; that's more than a new copy of Windows 8.1 or 10 costs right now, and that is not even taking into account that you can get them dead cheap or maybe even upgrade the device to Windows 10 for free.

The advantage that comes out of extended support is similar to the advantage that Enterprise customers get: the operating system is good for another three years before it needs to be switched (ignoring the option to continue using the operating system without security patches).

Now You: Would you pay Microsoft for an extended support period?

Ghacks needs you. You can find out how to support us here or support the site directly by becoming a Patreon. Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Would you pay Microsoft for extended Windows 7 support? appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

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Microsoft Botches Up UEFI Support for Windows 7 on ASUS Motherboards



Microsoft suggests updating to Windows 10 to patch Windows 7

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• Chris Merriman
• 
  @ChrisTheDJ
• 05 May 2016

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9 Comments

MICROSOFT HAS confirmed a potentially lappy-borking problem that it won't be fixing, because Windows 7.

Woody Leonhard, the respected Windows columnist, points to a problem involving Asus motherboards, which also appear rebadged in a variety of other manufacturers' machines, and the activation of UEFI Secure Boot for Windows 7 in a patch KB3133977.

Short version: install update, welcome to Borksville, population you.

Both Asus and Microsoft acknowledged the problem. Microsoft entitled the article "BitLocker can't encrypt drives because of service crashes in svchost.exe process in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2", but we prefer to just call it "Trevor for brevity."

The firm's advice was that it's an optional update, leave well alone, you'll be fine, or alternatively turn secure boot off.

Then Microsoft did a silly, silly thing.

It moved the update from 'optional' to 'recommended' and anyone who reads this site regularly will know what happens when Microsoft does this. That's right boys and girls - it makes it automatically install, unless you've specifically told your machine not to.

So now, if you have one of the affected motherboard and you keep your security updates automatic like wot Microsoft recommends, then your machine will stop working properly.

We should add it's not permanently bricked, but it will take some mucking about in the BIOS to fix and that's a pain even for an experienced computer user.

Microsoft has, by offering a workaround, suggested heavily that it won't be fixing the problem, though we have asked the question, so expect a response in about a fortnight.

But the real kicker is this piece of advice: "Note The Secure Boot feature is supported in Windows 10. To learn more about the security advantages of this feature and about the upgrade path from Windows 7 to Windows 10, go to the following Windows website"

Holy toledo, this company really knows how to rub people up the wrong way.

After all - if the advice is to manually avoid the update or move to a version of the operating system where there's virtually no control over updates, then Microsoft is dealing in massive contradictions.

A more cynical site would suggest that it's yet another example of Microsoft running Windows 7 into the ground and adding built in obsolescence to encourage quicker updates. But we're not that sort of site.

Its the patching to force secure boot that is the problem win 7 does not support secure boot
hence it borks systems and well microsofts answer is Cactus >your Asshole > insert

from the inquirer

 

Microsoft Increases Windows Vista & 7 Consumer Support to Ten Years

Redmond-based software giant Microsoft Corp. has recently updated its support policy for both Windows Vista and Windows 7 and will be offering extended support to the consumer versions of the two operating systems.

Previously, Microsoft provided 5 years worth of 'mainstream support' for consumers while only businesses got an extra 5 years of extended support. Now, all Windows users will be able to get security updates for 10 years after the operating system's release.

As a result of the policy change, Windows Vista's consumer support was extended to April 11th, 2017. Windows 7 support will end on January 14, 2020.





Source: ZDNet

 

Microsoft Locks System Updates for Windows 7, 8.1 on Ryzen, Kaby Lake Systems

You really missed the point of that post. The point is, it is still Microsoft's responsibility to provide the security and critical bug fixes within the scope of "extended support" REGARDLESS of the platform chosen by the user.