Microsoft Corp. is extending a helping if not cheap hand to small and midsized businesses that for whatever reason have been unable to update their computers to its Windows 10 operating system.

The company said it will make Windows 7 Extended Security Updates available to more of its customers, having previously only offered them to larger firms running Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise with volume licensing agreements. Now, businesses of any size will be able to pay for the ESUs.

That’s important because Microsoft is scheduled to end its free support and security updates for Windows 7 starting Jan. 14, 2020. After that date, only those who are willing to pay for the extended updates will continue to receive patches and security fixes.

“While many of you are well on your way to deploying Windows 10, we understand that everyone is at a different point in the upgrade process,” Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, wrote in a blog post. “With that in mind, today we are announcing that, through January 2023, we will extend the availability of paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates to businesses of all sizes.”

Microsoft said small and midsized businesses will be able to purchase ESUs starting Dec. 1. They’ll be available to buy for three years following that date from qualified Microsoft cloud solution provider partners.

Businesses should be warned, though, that Microsoft’s ESUs don’t come cheap. The updates will cost $25 per device for Windows 7 Enterprise users in the first year and rise to $100 per device by the third year. Windows 7 Professional users will have to pay even more, with prices starting at $50 per device in year one, rising to $200 per device in the final year.

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