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It looks as if Microsoft could extend Windows 7 Support by another three years

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 15, 2022
Updated • Jul 15, 2022
Windows 7
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Microsoft ended support for its Windows 7 operating system in 2020. The company offers extended support to organizations and businesses, but not to Home customers.

Microsoft's initial plan was to limit extended support to three years after support end, but it appears that the company could extend support by another three years, making it six years in total.

Our colleagues over at Deskmodder report that the July security updates KB5015861 and KB5015862 include the required ESU licenses and keys to extend support beyond the first three years. The second extension would guarantee support of Windows 7 until January 2026.

Microsoft creates updates for the following Windows 7 editions as part of the extended security updates program:

  • Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise
  • Windows 7 SP1 Pro
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Embedded Standard 7
  • Windows Embedded POS Ready 7

Microsoft released the monthly and security-only cumulative updates for Windows 7 ESU systems as part of the July 2022 Patch Day. ESU updates can only be installed officially on licensed machines. Bypasses exist to install Microsoft's official updates on Windows 7 Home devices, including Windows 7 Home and Professional.

Microsoft has not confirmed or denied the extension of Windows 7 ESU. Windows 7 holds a sizeable share of the desktop operating system market. Statcounter, one of the third-party companies that is tracking usage statistics, sees it at 11.54% of the Windows market share. Windows 11, Microsoft's newest operating system, sits at 10.96%, which makes Windows 7 the second most used version of Windows according to the company.

It makes sense to extend support if the numbers are close to real usage numbers. Organizations may require more time to move to a new version of Windows, or another operating system. The extension gives organizations that time. Organizations who have devices with ESU can protect the devices for another three years.

Microsoft announced earlier this month that it won't provide Windows 8.1 customers with a similar offer. Windows 8.1's usage share is less than 3% according to Statcounter, even though it is still officially supported.

If Windows 7 support is extended by another three years, it would mean that the operating system will be supported for longer than its direct successor, Windows 8.1, and even Windows 10. Both operating systems will run out of support before 2026. Microsoft could offer support extensions for Windows 10, the most used version of Windows at the time of writing.

Now You: what is your take on this?

Summary
It looks as if Microsoft could extend Windows 7 Support by another three years
Article Name
It looks as if Microsoft could extend Windows 7 Support by another three years
Description
Microsoft could extend support for its Windows 7 operating system by another three years for ESU customers.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Matt said on July 5, 2023 at 1:49 am
    Reply

    Still running the 7. As long as firefox supports it I will keep it and it assures safe browsing. Lightweight and easy, no OS subscription BS and I’m in controll. Let the hackers focus on the high market-share of win 10, no interesting high value user on win 7. My next OS update will be linux.

  2. C Buck said on October 14, 2022 at 2:10 am
    Reply

    I came here because I have one machine still using Windows 7 Ultimate. Disc usage is running 100%, and still working on that. I turned windows update from auto, to notify me, to see if it was the problem. A few minutes later, updates pop up from 2019 and 2020. It used to pop up and tell me it wouldn’t update. The pc was working just fine, until it started hanging up.

  3. coakl said on August 2, 2022 at 9:48 pm
    Reply

    With a hostile Russia and China, and the Ukraine war likely to last into 2023, MS has a *national security responsibility* to extend Win 7 protections.

    Russian and Chinese hackers, government-controlled or not, would love a world full of unpatched Win 7 networks.

    Same goes for Win 10, which should be extended to 2030.

  4. CraputerMan said on July 18, 2022 at 4:55 am
    Reply

    Any other news/sources for this? I was shopping around for some good linux distro to replace my ESU Windows 7, but if this is real then I will stay on Windows 7. Why? This computer is made for Windows 7, runs perfect with it. I did install a few linux distros on it a couple of years ago, but there were some issues with all of them so I went back to Windows 7..Should have known better, in this case. Moody computer =)

  5. allen said on July 17, 2022 at 12:44 am
    Reply

    Real support or is this Microsoft’s never-say-die attitude showing its desire to force Win7 users to update to the latest version of Windows, and they figure they’ll need at least 3 years to do it? …some little patch every few months to spring a surprise update on [un]suspecting users…

  6. Manny said on July 16, 2022 at 5:16 pm
    Reply

    I bought the ESU for the first two years then dropped it and used 0patch alone. I’m on Win 7 Pro and wondering if I should postpone my move to Win 11.

    1. NotITGuy said on September 8, 2022 at 11:00 am
      Reply

      Let us kept using Windows 7 and use 0patch, until crossover and Wine stable enough to run most Windows Software on Linux, and buy a laptop that has full Linux Support from HW (mostly thinkpad), and… move to linux. hehehe..

  7. Grain Of Salt said on July 16, 2022 at 3:58 pm
    Reply

    I believe this only after Google announces they changed their mind and Chrome will support W7 another 3 years as well.

    1. Anonymous said on July 17, 2022 at 1:33 pm
      Reply

      It is interesting that when windows 2000 and XP was out,Companies that were still using windows NT 4.0 could update it up to service pack 6 untill 2006,and the same happened to windows xp as it was supported officially by 2014 and by some tweaks it could get updates until 2019.The same scenario is happening again in Windows 7’s case.

  8. James said on July 16, 2022 at 1:17 pm
    Reply

    Yes but Chrome etc will only get updates to the end of this year, so without a modern supported browser this is a largely worthless extension. Maybe Google will extend support too but unlikely.

    That’s why I moved to Chromebook, Windows past 7 sucks.

  9. computer said no said on July 16, 2022 at 12:11 pm
    Reply

    Windows 7 is the best version microsoft ever produced.

    1. Iron Heart said on July 16, 2022 at 3:12 pm
      Reply

      @computer said no

      Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell > Windows 7

      Performance, SSD support, startup time, RAM usage…

      1. Peterc said on July 16, 2022 at 10:47 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart:

        …support for USB Attached SCSI Protocol (meaning faster transfers to and from USB 3 devices that support UASP, like, oh, I don’t know, *ALL* of my external backup drives)…

        I skipped 8/8.1 entirely (like Vista and ME before it), but faster backups are one thing I definitely appreciate about 10 compared to 7. (Of course, that will all be moot just as soon as I become a multi-millionaire and can replace my proletarian mechanical drives with 16TB Thunderbolt 4 SSDs — which should be any day now, right? ;-)

      2. Iron Heart said on July 17, 2022 at 10:26 pm
        Reply

        @Peterc

        Yeah, Windows 7 misses some newer features which is unsurprising considering that it’s from 2009. Anyhow, Windows 10 is too tyrannical (forced updates) and ad-infested (ugh, start menu!) for my liking. There is the LTSC version though…

      3. Alan said on July 16, 2022 at 4:24 pm
        Reply

        Windows 8.1 doesn’t seem to support turbo boost on the intel i7-11700 KF processor. I tried it before. Windows 7 will Probably do the same thing with the intel i7-11700 KF processor.

      4. NeonRobot said on July 17, 2022 at 8:14 am
        Reply

        My exp with Ryzen 5950x on Win 7 x64 ESU: scores faster than win11.
        Nvme readout is faster.

        in month or two will test 22c/44t Intel broadwell.

  10. Anonymous said on July 16, 2022 at 11:22 am
    Reply

    you all arguing but im still using windows 7 and cant download nothing because it have no updates ;/

    1. NotITGuy said on September 8, 2022 at 10:58 am
      Reply

      .NET 6.0 LTS and .NET standard still supported in MS Roadmap till 2026, so it isn’t true, Python 3.10 still supported by Community https://github.com/NulAsh/cpython, nodeJS 16 still can run on old 7, and list go on and on and on… Only office is deprecated, so I don’t think it’s fully true, only partially true …

  11. owl said on July 16, 2022 at 5:05 am
    Reply

    > Now You: what is your take on this?

    In Japan,
    Even government offices and hospitals still continue to use Windows 7 due to “budget constraints” and “difficulty in updating skills to support new systems”.
    The website of the public broadcaster NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) remains “http://”.

    The economy is deteriorating not only in Japan but worldwide, and in general, the business community has made “cost reduction” a top priority.
    Given the current situation in “corporate use”, which is Microsoft’s most important, extending support for Windows 7 is merely a necessity to support organizations and businesses. (But, home users are not supported.)

    1. owl said on July 17, 2022 at 9:11 am
      Reply

      Supplement:

      The purpose and means of computer operation are fundamentally different between “Home users” to “Corporate users”.
      For “Corporate use”, a basic operating system (OS) is needed to build the company’s specific system (specialized programs), and applications popular among home users (browsers, media players, games, etc.) are simply bloatware (useless and harmful).
      So it does not matter whether the browser is compatible with the OS or not.

      Originally, Windows OS had different specifications for Corporate use to Home use. However, Microsoft unified it into Windows 10 which was redesigned in the ecosystem for management rationalization (business restructuring measures).
      After all, the contradiction (unreasonableness) of the ecosystem (Sharing specifications) is exposed, and Things aren’t going as Microsoft expected.

    2. owl said on July 16, 2022 at 5:20 am
      Reply

      By the way,
      Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to ‘still uses Windows XP’.
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/17/vladimir-putin-still-uses-obsolete-windows-xp-despite-hacking-risk

  12. rip it out said on July 16, 2022 at 4:49 am
    Reply

    @Amir

    First, IMO you sound like a M$ shill.

    > After 2020, Windows 7 becomes a dinosaur.

    Which is one great thing about Linux, you can run it on a potato.

    > Windows 11 is the wave of the future.

    One must be sucking on the tailpipe of a car to think this.

    > In a few years, Windows 7/8.1 will be ancient/gone/history.

    Yup, but I can still install Linux on ancient computers which are faster than anything M$ provides.

    > I use Windows 11.

    I’m sorry to hear that.

    > For me, I am curious as to what Microsoft has in mind for The People.

    You mean for themselves. Do you honestly believe they design their OS for the people?

    > Bottom line is security.

    Then you shouldn’t use a proprietary Operating System which you cannot audit. You cannot make reproducible builds and verify the source code is legit. The number of “remote exploits” which can take control of the whole system are so numerous throughout the versions of Windows it’s a joke. Thanks for the laugh, BTW.

    > If Windows 11 is more secure than 7, then ok.

    If you trust a convicted monopoly and their proprietary black box OS to give you security, I have an invisible bridge to sell you, cheap.

    1. Anonymous said on July 16, 2022 at 12:20 pm
      Reply

      Cope harder.

  13. deleatur said on July 15, 2022 at 11:56 pm
    Reply

    “It looks as if Microsoft could extend Windows 7 Support by another three years” >> Dedicated to all those morons pretending to look “modern” and talking trash since 2015 like “Windows 7’s no updates”, “Windows 7 is obsolete”, “Windows 7 is insecure”, “Windows 7 is dead”. LOL. Chumps.

  14. granada said on July 15, 2022 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft advantage tool token

  15. funkyy said on July 15, 2022 at 10:26 pm
    Reply

    I was on WinXP for years and only moved to Win7 (due to some of my favourite progs not working on WInXP) a little more than 3 years ago. I’m very content with Win7 and very happy to hear that it may be supported for a few years more.
    I don’t like to be manipulated/forced into always upgrading to (spending more hard earned cash on) a new shiny version of Windows with more bells and whistles.

  16. Anonymous said on July 15, 2022 at 8:03 pm
    Reply

    On Windows 8.1 there are also several ESU files and folders installed with the 7/2022 patches… could this mean there will also be extended support for Windows 8.1?

  17. userpassadmin said on July 15, 2022 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Make it 10 years, Windows 7 is ways better than 10, 11. Until they fix their 10, 11, 11+..

    It’s so sad Python deprecated Windows 7, so Windows 7 Python users are forced to swtich to Windows 10, or Linux.

    1. NotITGuy said on September 8, 2022 at 10:55 am
      Reply

      @userpassadmin you still can install Python 3.10.1 from https://github.com/NulAsh/cpython, I hope the developer are save from the war, as most of Eastern European people still using Windows 7… mostly in production even in factory and retail…

      *even Putin himself seen using Windows 7 on his Computer Desk… Not RedStar OS like NK.. hehe…

    2. Anonymous said on July 15, 2022 at 7:55 pm
      Reply

      What software uses Python nowadays? The only software I can think of is youtube-dl.

      1. userpassadmin said on July 16, 2022 at 9:11 pm
        Reply

        Libraries… Many libraries dropped Windows 7 like urllib3, requests…

        Mitmproxy also dropped 7, and if you actually program Python, you will be locked out from a lot of new features, like OpenSSL 3, it sucks but Python < 3.9 don't support OpenSSL 3, and that means goodbye fhcde ciphers, goodbye a lot of configs…

  18. Adflix said on July 15, 2022 at 7:06 pm
    Reply

    Please be true! Everything after 7 has been a complete disaster. There are no skilled employees left to pull off a useable operating system at Microsoft.

    Maybe by 2026 all the Hello Kitty interns working on Windows 11 are fired and replaced with adults who can turn this turd into a professional operating system again.

    1. noname said on July 19, 2022 at 1:48 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is really unstable I use a HP stream with it and it is really unstable because of s mode and the ui

      1. StarX said on July 19, 2022 at 8:01 pm
        Reply

        Or you are using a really crappy cheap laptop of course it’s going to be slow and unstable. however those things do perform quite decently on linux as a web browsing machine.

      2. NotITGuy said on September 8, 2022 at 10:53 am
        Reply

        @StarX
        Sadly, most of Windows 11 user see inconsistency in Windows 11 interface, make it harder to navigate… and the unstableness even become worst when 08 2022 cumulative update hit retail. Even on new Ryzen 7 5700u, it still crawl like hell… and it even failed to update and suddenly clear all C:\Users\*, which is I can’t even comprehend… It cause a nightmare for some SysAdmin that I know, as It’s company property, yet the new update cause them a piles of new un-needed work… :/

  19. Anon said on July 15, 2022 at 6:23 pm
    Reply

    I don’t get why so many people love Windows 7 so much. I always thought it wasn’t all that great of a Windows version.

    1. freedombiker said on September 29, 2022 at 6:55 pm
      Reply

      Because it’s our love of 7 that we consider Microsoft’s greatest creation of all time! Strong, stable, simple, totally reliable, non-intrusive and able to do everything we need to do. A marriage made in Microsoft heaven between 7 and us!

    2. DaveyK said on July 16, 2022 at 12:53 pm
      Reply

      I love Windows 7 for a number of reasons:

      * IMO it is one of the most user-friendly versions of Windows Microsoft has ever released and has a far more clean and consistent design than Windows 10. It also looks a lot prettier than the flat, square, lifeless design of Windows 10.

      * Although Windows 11 also looks quite pretty, Windows 7 It is *far* more customisable.

      * Leaving Windows 8 aside, it is the last (good) version of Windows where I have full control over updates – I can install them when I want, hide updates I don’t want, and my PC only reboots when I explicitly give it permission to do so.

      * It has no telemetry (as long as you avoid the telemetry updates MS pushed out some time ago for it).

      * No built in adverts, nags for other MS products or anything like that.

      * No “feature updates” that take ages to install, risk breaking things on my PC and which usually offer questionable benefits anyway.

      * No “Microsoft account” or any of that kind of crap MS increasingly likes to push these days.

      In short, it is good looking, consistent, stable, I feel fully in control of it, and it doesn’t get in your face with nags and adverts. It just sits in the background and allows me to run the programs I want to use. Which let’s face it, should be the whole point of an OS.

    3. Martin Brinkmann said on July 15, 2022 at 6:46 pm
      Reply

      It was highly popular, partly because Vista and Windows 8.1 were considered to be very weak operating systems.

      1. Fred said on July 16, 2022 at 12:56 am
        Reply

        Agreed. Personally, I went from XP to W7. Then gave W10 a couple of years to settle down before moving to it.
        At this point given the state of W11 my eligible laptops will be remaining on W10 for quite some time yet.

        I entirely skipped Vista, W8 and W8.1.

      2. Jody Thornton said on July 15, 2022 at 6:55 pm
        Reply

        Yet I love Windows 8. It still runs modern applications for the most part. It looks modern enough, but not to the same level as Windows 10 or 11. I really wish there was a way to get ESU updates for Server 2012 to apply to Windows 8 until 2026.

      3. Iron Heart said on July 16, 2022 at 2:19 am
        Reply

        @Jody Thornton

        Server 2012 updates until fall 2023 could apply to your Windows 8 installation with a hack, but after that it’s the end of the line for that OS most definitely. Windows 8 has the lowest market share of all Windows versions starting with Windows 7.

        But then, even Windows 7 – should it actually get updates until 2026 – will suck, because modern versions of Chromium and Firefox won’t support it. That means no correct rendering of websites in the near future, which will persuade most people to leave. Same happened with Windows XP after all major browsers dropped support for it.

      4. NotITGuy said on September 8, 2022 at 10:49 am
        Reply

        @Iron Heart
        I expect Firefox will kept supporting Windows 7 till at least 2028, because if we use historical data, Windows 7 lowest point will be that year, as nowday about 40% of enterprise still use Windows 7 on production, can’t even switch to Windows 10, even they provide Hyper-V with Server Core or whatever they do, because Windows is Windows…..

      5. Plants said on July 18, 2022 at 7:17 am
        Reply

        Iron Heart,

        Server 2012 (which is essentially Windows 8) gets updates until 2026.
        https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-server-2012

        It’s a shame it has such a small market share really.
        It’s the lightest OS by far.
        Lighter than XP and 7.
        For sure lighter than 10 and 11.

        Doing a fresh install and seeing 35 processes after startup (vs 120+ on fresh Windows 10, 200+ on Windows 11) is so nice.
        Even nicer is the responsiveness of everything.

      6. noname said on July 19, 2022 at 1:45 pm
        Reply

        I used to use windows 7 and then I waited til 2022 and I ran memz malware on it and I switched to pop os which I use as my daily basis os now we’ll before I used pop os I switched to 10 and then I switched to pop os because of my disk space being used and I ran out of space

      7. noname said on July 19, 2022 at 1:46 pm
        Reply

        Because windows 10 is unstqble don’t upgrade to windows 11 or 10 it is unstable

      8. Jody Thornton said on July 19, 2022 at 1:44 am
        Reply

        @Plants

        How are you getting the ESU updates? That’s the only way to get Server 2012 updates until 2026. If you go to the Microsoft Catalog site, those updates are available until October 2023. That’s still nearly a year and a half, but I’d love to get an additional three years.

      9. Jody Thornton said on July 16, 2022 at 7:28 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart!
        Hey good to see you here!

        I don’t even need a hack for Windows Server 2012 updates. I’ve been applying them to Windows 8 since February 2016. I just fetch them from the Microsoft Catalog, and install.

        Still I have a year and four months to use it until October 2023.

  20. John G. said on July 15, 2022 at 5:56 pm
    Reply

    My father uses W7 everyday and it’s like there aren’t other versions of Windows. Thanks for the article! :]

    1. tinwheeler said on July 15, 2022 at 9:14 pm
      Reply

      I agree with your father. I’m an old dinosaur that still believes in the old adage that ” If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!

      1. Anonymous said on July 15, 2022 at 9:55 pm
        Reply

        How true. The timber spoked wheels on my horseless carriage are still functioning like new. Why replace it with something that takes me places, faster and safer.

      2. Steve99 said on July 16, 2022 at 3:08 pm
        Reply

        Sry to disagree, but your stmts do not accurately reflect reality. From a historic perspective, ms update continues to be the largest threat to efficient OS performance on well maintained boxes. And the so called ms “modern” cellphone interface, destroyed efficient gui interaction and performance – Win 8 and Win 11 being the worse of the lot.

        From a gui perspective, Win 7 is far more efficient and enables users to cleanly focus on their task at hand – without horrendous gui distractions. I would suggest focused attention along with not having to fight the gui to perform the task at hand, is far more efficient then using a cell phone interface on a PC. And like any secured OS, Win7 is safe when correctly setup. I’m still running many Win7 devices which run safe, extremely fast, and in highly efficient manners. After activation, MS no longer see these boxes to count them as Win 7 boxes because they are forbidden to contact MS; to protect them from faulty ms updates and corporate spying (ms “telemetry”). As far as runntime, my main machine along with five+ Win 7 VMs has been running secure and non-stop for four+ weeks. Zero issues, no updates, smooth sailing, efficient ops.

      3. Anonymous said on January 2, 2023 at 5:41 am
        Reply

        Totally agreed with you. Although at official machines we are using Windows 10 , but personally Windows 7 has been far more flexible, reliable, stable and efficient. Security patches could be separately given. Its something like iOS & Android keeps updating but ultimate GUI never changes. I loved Windows 7 always. On lighter note; it can handle even something of our collage days back to 90s…Xp era…LOL..Seriously it was enforced for me as a user, same as Toyota did in India in car segment, to sell their Innova Model, the quit the Qualis, which was an all-rounder SUV.

      4. Steve99 said on July 16, 2022 at 3:11 pm
        Reply

        PS: My above comment was meant for @Anonymous, to be nested under “The timber spoked wheels” comment …

    2. Amir said on July 15, 2022 at 6:10 pm
      Reply

      After 2020, Windows 7 becomes a dinosaur. Windows 11 is the wave of the future. In a few years, Windows 7/8.1 will be ancient/gone/history.

      I use Windows 11. For me, I am curious as to what Microsoft has in mind for The People. Bottom line is security. If Windows 11 is more secure than 7, then ok. 

      1. Martin P. said on July 15, 2022 at 11:36 pm
        Reply

        @Amir

        « If Windows 11 is more secure than 7, then ok. »

        From what has been seen about Windows 11 security, that’s a big “IF” about Windows 11 eventually becoming more secure than Windows 7 in the next 3 years.

        Personaly, I might be wrong but I don’t see it coming that much.

  21. NeonRobot said on July 15, 2022 at 5:21 pm
    Reply

    Man, this is gonna be so cool.
    In such case i suspect that 7 will easily outlive 11.

    1. NotITGuy said on September 8, 2022 at 10:46 am
      Reply

      I do agree. The 08 2022 Update from Windows 10 just destroy my data and everything, and I revert using Windows 7 untill Microsoft never ever push bad update anymore… such a bad attitude to user.. What a mess up company is it..

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