Microsoft Has Stopped Selling Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1

​Something significant happened just a few days ago and you likely did not realize it.  October 31st was the last day that system builders such as Dell, HP, and all the others could purchase Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1 licenses from Microsoft.  No, this wasn’t a Halloween trick.  Technically, most versions of Windows 7 were no longer sold to consumers as of 2 years ago as well as all versions of Windows 8.1, but Windows 7 Pro was given a reprieve.  Now, going forward, only Windows 10 can be purchased by system builders.
 
Does that mean that you can no longer buy a new computer with anything other than Windows 10?  No, it does not.  System builders are allowed to use whatever Windows 7 Pro licenses they happen to have in stock, but once those licenses are gone, new computers will only be able to be built with Windows 10.
 
Windows 7 will continue to be supported until January 14, 2020 and Windows 8.1 until January 10, 2023, and will not stop working after those dates (although will no longer benefit from Windows updates thereafter), so for those of you who are running those versions of Windows, you have plenty of time left before you will need to embrace Windows 10.
 
However, if you are on the edge in terms of considering a new computer, and really want Windows 7, you had better act quickly.