Monday, 3 October 2016

You Can’t Buy New Windows 7 And 8.1 PCs After This Month



Short Bytes: Microsoft is ending the sales of PCs with preinstalled Windows 7 and 8.1. This change will come into effect from October 31, 2016. However, Redmond will continue to provide security fixes for these versions. 

While Microsoft is aggressively pushing Windows 10 by partnering with different OEMs, some customers are still buying new PCs powered by the older version of Windows. If you are planning something similar in near future, hurry up!

Microsoft has officially declared that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs won’t be available in the market after October 31, 2016. In other words, these operating systems are officially dead for Microsoft’s money-making machine.

Microsoft’s support page mentions that Windows 7 Professional, whose retail sales ended on October 31, 2013, won’t be sold preinstalled on PC. The same applies for Windows 8.1.

This change will be implemented by Microsoft’s royalty OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. They’ll now sell new Windows PCs that’ll only run versions of Windows 10.

So, what about my existing Windows 7 and 8.1 installations?

Contrary to what may seem, the older versions of Windows aren’t dead. Microsoft will continue to roll out security fixes via Windows Update. Windows 7 will receive updates until Jan. 14, 2020 and Windows 8.1 will be supported until Jan. 10, 2023.

This new step is also inspired by the fact that Intel and AMD’s latest processors will only support Windows 10.

Still, you have the option to install Windows 7 on your newer devices. But, be ready to move to Windows 10 in future as Microsoft and OEMs don’t plan to deliver a long-time support.

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