This year
31 October frights are not limited to Halloween. Today is also the day
Microsoft stops selling retail copies of both Windows 7 and Windows 8.
The date is
written large in the Windows
Life Cycle Fact Sheet but, like the best Halloween scares, the real
threat is not as big as the initial shock.
This is how
it breaks down:
From 31
October there will be no more sales to consumers of Windows 7 Home Basic, Home
Premium or Ultimate. There will also be no more sales of Windows 8 retail box
copies.
There will
be retail box sales of Windows 8.1 (Microsoft draws a hard line between Windows
8 and Windows 8.1) and businesses and consumers will still be able to buy
Windows 8 Professional licences through ‘Downgrade Rights’, but it
will come at additional cost and have limited availability.
For those
keen to act fast there will be a stock pile of licences for Windows 7
Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate floating around major OEMs (original
equipment manufacturers) like Dell and HP. That said, given
OEMs will not be receiving more licences from Microsoft after today, it is
a ticking clock.
A note of
warning: a big market for Windows 7 licenses is likely to sprout up online,
particularly on auction sites, but be careful. Microsoft’s
EULA (end user license agreement) makes selling on second hand copies
null and void.
No comments:
Post a Comment