Microsoft may be ending Windows 8 software retail sales on Friday, October 31, but the company has another deadline that it claims it will follow on the same day



From Windows Central:

According to Microsoft's Windows lifecycle fact sheet, OEM sales of Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate will cease on Friday. However, there is one small but important exception. Microsoft will still sell copies of Windows 7 Professional to OEMs after Friday and Microsoft has yet to set up a deadline for those sales to end.

The distinction is important because many businesses have yet to upgrade their PCs that use the 13 year old Windows XP, which Microsoft no longer supports. Yet they also don't want to buy PCs that have the latest version of the OS, Windows 8.1. So it would appear that Microsoft is allowing PC makers to give businesses what they want; a version of Windows 7 when they buy their new systems that doesn't have to be downgraded from Windows 8.1. Some companies may wait even longer for the launch of [Windows 10](http://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10 in 2015 to finish their PC upgrade process, since it will have the Start menu on the desktop like Windows 7.

  Microsoft to end Windows 7 sales to OEMs Friday, except for Windows 7 Pro