Extended support: Hamburg pays half a million for Windows 7 support

Even nine months after Microsoft's official end of support for Windows 7, the Hamburg administration continues to use devices with the outdated operating system. These are around 9,100 computers, for whose extended support the Hamburg Senate pays around 526,000 euros. The taxpayers' association points this out in its current black book .

The organization criticizes this as unnecessary expenditure, since Hamburg had eight years to plan the upgrading of the old devices and updates for the operating system. After all, the date of the end of support by Microsoft had been known for so long. According to the report, the Hamburg administration began planning the switch to Windows 10 in November 2016.

Of the around 9,100 computers with Windows 7, around 8,100 are used by the police. The conversion of the computers to the new system continues. The Hamburg Senate justifies the need for extended support "through hardware or software not yet provided" . The Senate emphasizes that the changeover outside the police force by the official end of Windows 7 support in January 2020 had already been completed on 98 percent of their own computers.

The fact that authorities and public administration have problems updating their systems in good time and therefore have to buy additional support from the manufacturer is nothing unusual in view of the past. One of the first customers for extended support for Windows 7 was the federal government . Even when switching away from Windows XP, many authorities had to buy additional support from Microsoft because the systems could not be updated in time. The latter was true for Berlin , Lower Saxony and the Bundestag .