PC makers have a year left to sell new Windows 7 machines

[allheart55 (Cindy E)]

Microsoft is planning to make sure PC makers only install Windows 10 on new machines next year. On October 31st 2016, OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo will all have to stop shipping new PCs with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 pre-installed. Instead, Microsoft wants all new machines to ship with Windows 10. ZDNet points out that this is a little sooner than usual, as Microsoft normally sets an end-of-sales date for older versions of Windows two years after the launch of a new version.

Microsoft extended that policy during the Windows 8 era to allow PC makers to continue to pre-install Windows 7. HP used the extension as a marketing effort to bring Windows 7 PCs back "by popular demand." At the time the software maker said it would give OEMs a year's notice, and it's clear that Microsoft feeds confident enough with Windows 10 to push PC makers to preinstall it next year. It comes alongside Microsoft's move to automatically download the Windows 10 install files to Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines next year. Consumers will still have a choice to upgrade, but Microsoft is being a lot more aggressive in its approach to reach 1 billion devices running Windows 10.

Source : theverge

 

[Mommalina]

" On October 31st 2016, OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo will all have to stop
shipping new PCs with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 pre-installed "

Here's hoping I and my XP computer [ ] survive until early October 2016
But I bet all the pre-installed W7 OEMs will be outrageously priced or unavailable
by then.

 

[allheart55 (Cindy E)]

You can pretty much install any operating system on a new computer as long as you have the disk and a license key, Lina.

 

[Plastic Nev]

Right at this moment there seems plenty of Windows 7 laptops still for sale on the UK Amazon site, so I assume the same for the USA site. I would be getting one now rather than leaving it till next October.

 

[Mommalina]

I stick to desktop PCs. My limited experience with laptops
stressed the cervical spine too much.

How long do you think users will be able to buy W7 disks
to install on their desktop?

 

[Plastic Nev]

How long do you think users will be able to buy W7 disks
to install on their desktop?

That is going to be hard to answer as those disks are already becoming difficult to find as Microsoft stopped issuing them last year. I can only suggest a search of the retailers in the hope that there may still be some available. I would be careful of E Bay as some are trying to sell used copies which of course will not validate having been used once already.

 

[Mommalina]

I'm still able to download and watch videos of my
grandkids' long-distance weddings and graduations,
my great-grandkids' baptisms, and, sadly, funerals
and memorials. And I can still access Amazon.com
to order on line.

Sorry, Microsoft, I'm just not incentivized to abandon
my XP computer. If it ain't broke, I ain't fixing it!

 

[allheart55 (Cindy E)]

I'll be the last one to knock XP, Lina, if it works for you and what you want to do, that's all that really matters.