The end is nigh for Windows 7 as Microsoft Corp. announced today that it would stop offering free support for the operating system one year from today.

Free is the key word. Microsoft is withdrawing mainstream support — that is, free security updates for Windows 7 users — but also still providing them to those willing to pay.

The Windows 7 Extended Securities Updates program was actually announced back in September. Although pricing has still not been disclosed four months later, the program will give enterprise holdouts options to obtain support once free updates end.

What is known about the program is that enterprises will be charged on a per-device basis, with the price increasing each year, according to ZDNet. The program will be available to any Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise users with volume licensing agreements. While providing support beyond 2020, the ESU program will be offered only for three years with an expiration date of January 2023.

Along with withdrawing support for Windows 7, which was launched back in 2009, Microsoft is also pulling support for Office 2010.

“Changes and upgrades in technology are inevitable,” Brad Anderson, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, said in a blog post. “And there’s never been a better time to start putting in motion the things you need to do to shift your organization to a modern desktop with Microsoft 365.”

Windows 10, launched in 2015, changed the Microsoft paradigm when it comes to operating systems by becoming a “forever” operating system that would be annually updated rather than replaced by a new version of Windows.

Windows 7, arguably one of Microsoft’s best operating system releases, had become highly popular by the time of the Windows 10 release and it took considerable time for it to be replaced — so long that Windows 10 only overtook Windows 7 in popularity Jan. 2. As of the beginning of the month, Windows 10 was reported to be used on 39.2 percent of all desktop machines, while Windows 7 was still powering 36.9 percent of all desktops.

Of an estimated 1.5 billion desktop and laptop PCs in the world, Windows 7 is still running on 553 million devices.

Microsoft is pushing people to upgrade to Windows 10, but come January 2020 there will be hundreds of millions of PCs running Windows 7 that will left alone in the security wilderness.

Image: 34339147@N03/Flickr