It made the U-turn after it emerged there was a bug in its "final" patch.

It caused "wallpaper issues" for users who configured their computers with the stretch option for their background desktop, causing a plain black screen to be shown when Windows was restarted.

And users took to Reddit and Microsoft own support forums demanding a fix.

Security consultant Graham Cluley tweeted: "That didn't take long. Microsoft backs down on 'no more updates for Windows 7' in order to fix stretched wallpaper bug."

Initially, Microsoft said it would issue the new fix only to those who subscribed to its extended security updates (ESU) program.

But later it said: "We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release, which will be released to all customers running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1."

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 7 on 14 January, although ESU subscribers will continue to receive security updates.

One in four Windows users is still running Windows 7, according to measurement website StatCounter.

Security experts have advised them to upgrade their operating systems to Windows 10.