Microsoft gives OEMs a deadline: one year, then no more new Windows 7 PCs

[RV_]

Since there is so much diversity in the Windows ranks today from upgrade and buy new systems like I tend to do, to the folks wanting no change and to just hang onto Windows 7 or 8/8.1. (even some XP users and Vista users want to stay unchanged!)

 

I posted the links to programs that help avoid the Windows 10 updates in another thread here. But for those who wonder about the support cycles and dates here they are. They allude to the end of sales for the software standalone but still allowed to be sold by the manufacturers preinstalled.

 

Another timely article by Ed Bott one of my favorite tech writers on ZDNet.

 

Excerpt:

 

"Want to buy a new Windows 7 PC? Better get busy, because there are only 364 shopping days left. As promised, Microsoft is providing one year's notice to PC makers on Windows 7's end of life. The clock starts now.

 

Microsoft has quietly updated its Windows Lifecycle Fact Sheet page, adding October 31, 2016 as the last date on which manufacturers can sell PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled

 

Normally, Microsoft's policy is to set the end-of-sales date for a specific Windows version two years after the launch of the version of Windows that succeeds it. Under that policy, sales of Windows 7 PCs should have ended in late October of 2014, two years after the launch of Windows 8.

 

But the tepid response of the market to Windows 8 led Microsoft to give PC makers a reprieve, allowing them to continue selling PCs with Windows 7 Pro installed. At the time, the company promised it would give a year's notice before changing that policy.

 

That time's up, apparently. PCs with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 can continue to be sold until October 31, 2016. After that date, businesses will need to use downgrade rights or exercise Software Assurance rights with volume license agreements to run the old version on new hardware.

 

Ironically, the end-of-sales date for Windows 8 PCs will arrive even sooner, on June 30, 2016.

 

The bottom line: One year from today, you'll still be able to find new PCs running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, but only in existing inventory. And Windows 7 PCs will become increasingly hard to find as that inventory vanishes from warehouses, because OEMs won't be allowed to build new consumer and business PCs for the retail channel with any version except Windows 10 preinstalled."

 

There is still more in the article, as well as the hot links to the charts and Microsoft pages as well as related articles here: http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-sets-end-of-sales-date-for-windows-7-pcs/?tag=nl.e589&s_cid=e589&ttag=e589&ftag=TREc64629f