Microsoft will no longer sell all retail software versions of the Windows 7 OS (i.e. boxed copies of the OS not pre- installed on a PC - Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Professional) until October 31, 2014. Though from reports, Microsoft said 'again this week they still have not yet gone public with the end-of-sales cutoff date for PCs running Windows 7 Pro.'
According to a report from The Inquirer, "It comes exactly one year after Microsoft ended retail sales for all versions of Windows 7, although at the time of writing, many retailers still have stock for sale. It is Microsoft's usual practice to withdraw OEM supply a year to the day after stopping retail sales."
"Microsoft's next diary date for Windows 7 will be 13 January 2015, when it will drop mainstream support. This essentially means that the product will be considered 'finished' and Microsoft will perform no further development on it beyond patches and bug fixes,"
The October 31 cutoff date will not end Windows 7 support or downgrade rights for Microsoft Windows 7.
Reportef by ZDnet On the downgrade rights front," users are still able to buy a new PC with an original-equipment- manufacturer license for a business edition of Windows and then install an earlier version. PCs with Windows 8.1 Pro can be downgraded to Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business. Microsoft volume licensees don't have to worry about their manufacturer's downgrade rights provisions; they have the right to downgrade to any prior version of Windows."
After October 31 the only choice that is left for Microsoft users are Windows 8 and the upcoming Windows 9.
Windows 9 is reported to launch next year, though it will be introduced on September 30 in an event of Microsoft.
Windows 9 is anticipated to bring back the start button. Other features might include windowed apps, virtual desktops , shutdown on start screen and unified taskbar.
