Microsoft 'Confirms' Windows 7 New Monthly Charge

Microsoft MSFT -0.45% has always described Windows 10 “as a service” and leaks have already revealed new monthly charges are coming. Of course, for Windows 7 owners this was never something they expected to pay. But times change…

In a new blog post entitled “Helping customers shift to a modern desktop”, Microsoft has announced that it will indeed start charging Windows 7 customers a monthly fee from January 14th 2020, if they want to keep their computers safe.

If this date rings a bell, that’s because it is the day Microsoft will end ‘Extended Support’ for Windows 7 according to the company’s Lifecycle page. This means no more patches or security updates unless, as we now learn, you pay. Furthermore, Microsoft says it will increase the cost of this every year.

“[T]oday we are announcing that we will offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) through January 2023. The Windows 7 ESU will be sold on a per-device basis and the price will increase each year,” explained Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Office and Windows Marketing, and author of the company’s blog post.

Pricing was not revealed by Spataro, but for some the announcement will be seen as a good thing. Microsoft could have just cut off all Windows 7 users on January 14th 2020, leaving them stranded and their data vulnerable, so the introduction a monthly charge gives users an alternative if they remain dead set against upgrading to Windows 10.