Its the farewell of Window 7 as Microsoft ends retail sales of the consumer versions of its Home Basic, Premium and Ultimate to computer manufacturers.
As of late last week, Microsoft put an end over selling retail copies of some versions of Windows 7 and 8. The move is to help and encourage people on to more recent versions of the operating system. Once the supply runs out, people won’t be able to get a new computer with that old software installed.
If you are into business, you need not to worry as Windows 7 professional was spared at least till next year. The changes are primarily going to affect PC manufacturers as the tech giant already stopped selling Windows 7 software package to the general public in 2013, but now even Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) cannot license it.
There will be retail box sales of Windows 8.1 while consumers and businesses will still be able to buy Windows 7 Professional licenses. However, it will be available at an extra cost and have limited availability. It is unclear how many PCs with old version are still in stock but it might take some time to see its brush off.
The Windows 8 version was largely a failure for the tech giant as it was given a very cold response by businesses and regular customers. The absence of the Start Menu was one of the big complaints by users. Mainstream support for Windows 7 will end in January 2015 and the retail sales of Windows 8 on Friday.
The next big upgrade will be Windows 10 for its Windows Operating System and it is expected to launch in late 2015. A preview version of the software was available to download and was checked by 1 million users in the first two weeks.
The recent shift will take some time as many PC makers have large stocks of older versions and will continue to sell PCs running the software. However, market analysis reveals a sharp decline in the number of people using the Windows XP operating system.
The tech giant believes that it can bridge the gap for people to migrate to mobile devices running Microsoft software.
Looks like the tech giant is clearing the path for the launch of Windows 10….