Microsoft To Deep Six Windows 7 & 8.1 On New PCs Next November

If you want to buy a PC with Windows 7 or (for whatever reason) Windows 8.1, the clock is ticking. Microsoft’s “Windows lifecycle fact sheet” shows October 31, 2016, as the “end of sales for PCs with Windows preinstalled” for both Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1,

This doesn’t affect those who have Windows 7 or 8.1 already. If you want to continue running Windows 7, extended technical support will be available until January 14, 2020. The date for Windows 8.1 users is January 10, 2023. In either case, you’ll still be able to get security patches, bug fixes and other updates. Another thing to keep in mind is that due to the fact that Windows 8.1 received such a tepid reception, Microsoft extended the sales lifecycle of Windows 7 as it should have ended at this time last year. Clearly, all of this is meant to drive adoption of Windows 10 which I’ve said is a good effort from Microsoft despite the privacy issues that exist and the fact that you can’t refuse updates which can end badly for you. Let’s see if it gets them closer to having that OS on 1 billion devices.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from The IT Nerd

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading