Purchasing Windows 7 ESUs as a Cloud Solution Provider

[Poornima Priyadarshini]

Support for Windows 7 ends on January 14, 2020. While many customers are well on their way to deploying Windows 10, Microsoft understands that everyone is at a different point in the upgrade process. Businesses of any size with Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Enterprise can purchase Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program beginning on Monday, December 2, 2019.

Windows 7 ESUs are sold on a per-device basis and are available for purchase in 12-month increments only. As a result, you cannot purchase ESUs for partial periods (e.g. six months). Coverage will be available in three consecutive 12-month increments following Windows 7 end of support on January 14, 2020, and the price will increase each year. 

If you are a CSP partner, here are the steps[i] you need to follow to purchase Windows 7 ESUs on behalf of your customers:

1. Visit the Partner Center.
2. Select Add products > Select > Software, then filter the results to Type: Software Subscriptions, and Term: 1 year.
3. Select Windows 7 Extended Security Updates from the Products list, indicate the quantity of Windows 7 ESUs desired, select Add to cart, and complete the transaction. 

Purchasing Windows 7 ESUs through the Partner Center

Once the order is completed and processed, you will see the keys appear in the Partner Center within the hour—and the indirect reseller or end customer will see them in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

 
How Windows 7 ESU purchases, and number of licenses for each MAK key, appear in the Partner Center.

Each transaction for Windows 7 ESU licenses will generate a unique MAK key. If a customer purchases Windows 7 ESUs at multiple points in time, CSP partners will be able to see the full list of transactions in the Partner Center for that customer. The customer will also see the MAK keys and associated licenses in their Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

CSP partners purchasing Windows 7 ESUs on behalf of multiple customers will be able to see the full list of customers they’ve transacted with in Partner Center, as shown below.

For more information on how to install, activate, and deploy ESUs, see How to get Extended Security Updates for eligible Windows devices. For more information on how to process the Windows 7 ESU transaction, see Sell software subscriptions through CSP. 

If you are an indirect reseller and looking to purchase ESUs, you will need to find an indirect provider. If you are a customer looking to purchase Windows 7 ESUs through a CSP partner, you can find a CSP through the Microsoft Solution Providers database.

[i] The interface and steps shown may differ slightly depending on how you access the Partner Center.

[alex335678]

This continues to be a challenge to purchase this license under SPLA or CSP. All the distributors, we primarily work with Insight and CDW are unsure of how to purchase the Windows Server w-08 R2 ESU. Under CSP, there are only Windows 7 patches that do not work on Windows Server, and under any other hosting/SPLA model it is not included in any price lists. In general, we’ve been getting the run around from MS and distributors for months now and were told for the December CSP ESU only to find out that is just Windows 7.

If someone can reach out, we are struggling with this and have significant business with MS.

[Stephanvh]

For SPLA you can't buy esu (spla doesn't have sa) - we're also looking for a way to solve this

[Gertjan Jongeneel]

I guess MAK keys will work very well with ordinary, persistent desktops. But how about non-persistent desktop that are based on a single golden image? How do we activate those? These desktops will not 'remember' the MAK activation as they are, well eh ….non-persistent. Do we activate the golden image, update the image and will all 'clones' be able to use this updated image (without specific local activation)? When we need to activate non-persistent images, there is a need for activation every time the desktop starts up. That adds up to a lot of activations. What would the proposed solution be, as I believe there are still a lot of VDI and alike environments still based on Windows 7 where the customer wants to ESU to extend the support and buy some extra time for upgrading.  

[HotCakeX]

Upgrading to Windows 10 is a lot easier.

It's been more than 10 years, it's really time to upgrade from Windows 7.

Windows 10 is now a solid OS, at first it wasn't but now after 5 years it is.

[Mani000]

Although, the Windows 7 ESU was expected to be available by Dec 2, 2019, it is still currently not there in India. Any information about the prices involved or when would it be available in India?

[AmberNN]

@Stephanvh do you know about any ETA to resolve this issue with SPLA licensing? January, 14 is coming soon, and looks like partners won't be able to install updates released on January- even if want to pay some $$$ to Microsoft for ESU.

[Mani000]

@Poornima Priyadarshini : any comment regarding the availability of this feature in India? The partners are not able to access it.

[alex335678]

Dear Microsoft - you are completely not answering majority of questions being asked here.  Nothing worse than holding AMAs and asking people to post questions when you are not planning to answer the majority of them.  We continue to struggle to purchase ESU for Windows Server 2008 R2 from ANY distributor.  What is your answer here for small businesses that do NOT have more than 500 users?  

[Stephan325]

For SPLA - customers above 500 users can take a ESU license above there SPLA servers in their EA /EAS.

Covering Hosted Workloads

Customer may also purchase ESU coverage for workloads running on Authorized Services Providers’ servers under License Included offerings. “Authorized Services Providers” means services providers listed at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/software-assurance/license-mobility.aspx. “License Included” means Customer is licensing Windows Server or SQL Server through the Authorized Services Provider, and is not bringing its own licenses (e.g., BYOL). Customer must acquire ESU licenses for all of the Virtual Cores in a Virtual OSE subject to a minimum of 16 for Windows Server and four for SQL Server.

[SCCMAdmin]

Hey @alex335678 first up, Happy New Year! Also I don't work for Microsoft. This page https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4527875 shows under general questions:
Where can I find information about the end of support for Windows Server 2008 or Windows 2008 R2?

Support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ends on January 14, 2020. Learn more here. 

Learn more here is:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-sql-server-2008

I'm not involved with replacing Win2008 but from everything I've read to date, you can migrate it to Azure (depends on your licensing from memory) or get off it. There is no easy answer to such work.

I've been involved with eradicating Win7 in our enterprise. Even that takes about 50 ppl globally slowly chipping away at it.

Good luck!

[JeffkMN]

After purchasing the license look in your Partner Portal, Customers, Software, Down Arrow, and keys should appear.  

[SWANHANA]

When will the Windows 7 ESU 2021 be available in CSP and how much will it cost?  Thanks.

SWAN

[Sarahboutalib]

Can Windows Embedded Standard 7 customers purchase ESU via CSP?

Thanks

Sarah

[DaZwa6464]

Hi. I manage a number of computers running Win7 Ultimate. I find contradicting information whether ESU licences are available for this OS. Can someone bring clarity?

[Stephan325]

Hi, I think only: ESU is available for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise. (there was never a Volume License for Windows 7 Ultimate)

[jasawan]

dificult find another image file for OS win7