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While Microsoft has postponed the official cut off date for Windows 7 security update support several times, the coming January 2020 cutoff is the real deal. However, the tech giant has recently confirmed that instead of fully cutting off holdout Win7 users, they’ll start charging a monthly subscription fee to get security updates.

The company has confirmed that users still running Windows 7 will have to start paying a monthly subscription fee beginning January 14th, 2020.

This is the same day free security updates for the aging operating system will be cut off. In short: you won’t get security updates after this date unless you pay – a service they’ve called Extended Security Updates (ESU) since the Windows XP days.

“[T]oday we are announcing that we will offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) through January 2023. The Windows 7 ESU will be sold on a per-device basis and the price will increase each year,” explained Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Office and Windows Marketing

Spataro did not confirm what the pricing structure will look like for users still on Windows 7, but the company did confirm pricing will increase every year.

Currently, 42% of all personal computers are still running Windows 7 around the world, and 36% of those are running Windows 10 (both stats via NetMarketShare), while these numbers can fluctuate, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how many users and institutions pony up for Win10, or start paying for extended security fixes.

What kind of computer do you use regularly? Windows? Mac? Also – what operating system are you running? Sound off in the comments below!