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Microsoft ends OEM sales of Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1
When the nagware stops working, there's another way to get you upgrading
If you can get Dell, HP Inc, Lenovo or any other PC-maker to sell you a PC running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1, please let us know how you did it because Microsoft no longer sells the operating system to OEMs.
Redmond's Windows lifecycle webpage has long-since flagged October 31, 2016 as the date on which Windows 7 Pro would “no longer [be] shipped to retailers or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).”
Seeing as we're into November, from now on Redmond will only send copies of Windows 10 to the world's PC builders.
Those of you with enduring licences for Windows 7 and 8.1 can still install and run it, but you just can't buy a PC with either installed. Retail sales of all Windows 7 versions ended three years ago and Windows 8.1 was yanked from shelves on September 1, 2015.
It's possible that OEMs have unsold inventory with Windows 7 or 8.1 pre-installed. Manufacturers can also sell machines with Windows 10 Pro, which can, in theory, be downgraded to Windows 7 or 8.1 Pro. That's why this Lenovo Australia page offers “Windows 7 Professional 64 preinstalled through downgrade rights in Windows 10 Pro.”
This kind of offer will disappear soon, because we're now living in a Windows 10 world. Enjoy it if you can, or because you must. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
