Recap: On January 14, Microsoft ended its extended support for Windows 7, meaning businesses and education customers sticking with the aging OS have to pay for extended security updates (ESUs). One of these users is the German government, which must pay Microsoft at least $886,000 after failing to upgrade to Windows 10.
According to German media, the country's federal government still has 33,000 workstations running Windows 7. To keep receiving ESUs, it must pay Microsoft a fee for every device---and it's not cheap. The price is dependent on what version of Windows 7 is being used. During the first year, those using Windows 7 Enterprise will pay $25 per machine. This doubles to $50 in the second year and goes up to $100 for the third year. Staying on Windows 7 Pro is going to cost even more. ESUs start at $50 before going up to $100 in year two and $200 during year three.
German newspaper Handelsblatt reports that the government started the process of moving to Windows 10 back in 2018, but hasn't been able to upgrade every workstation in time. It adds that 20,000 of the 85,000 machines in Berlin government offices are running Windows 7.
The German government isn't the only organization behind schedule when it comes to migrating to Windows 10. A report from last year revealed that many industries were taking too long to upgrade.
According to NetMarketShare, 32 percent of Windows users are still on Windows 7, which works out at over 100 million machines. And this is despite Microsoft recently rolling out full-screen prompts advising people to upgrade to Windows 10.