Microsoft has finally stopped selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to OEMs. It means you will not see any new laptop or desktop with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 out of the box. Of course, the sales of existing products will be there until stock ends.
According to Microsoft’s Windows lifecycle fact sheet, the sales of these versions of Windows ended on October 31, 2016.
It is worth to note that Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate ended exactly 2 years back on October 31, 2014, but the company kept selling professional version until October 31, 2016. A similar thing was with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Microsoft stopped selling Windows 8 to OEMs on June 30 and Windows 8.1 on October 31, 2016.
If you are still using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and do not wish to upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft will still give you security updates and support. Windows 8.1 users will get both updates and security fixes until January 9, 2018, but for Windows 10 this updates and patches will be available until January 13, 2020.
Now the only option left for OEMs is the Windows 10. Windows 10 is already popular but the growth rate is not as per expectation. After the end of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 sales, we can hope to see the boost in sales of Windows 10.
