Microsoft has quietly updated the sales deadline of Windows
7 and Windows 8.1 pre-installed PCs. Now the manufacturers
won’t be allowed to sell these machines after 31st October,
2016.
According to the updated ‘Windows lifecycle fact sheet’,
OEMs have got one more year to sell PCs with Windows 7
and Windows 8.1. But after 31st October, 2016 they will only
be selling PCs with Windows 10, considering that the last
date for Windows 8 pre-installed PCs is also set for June 30,
2016. However, the Redmond giant will keep supporting
Windows 7 until January 14, 2020, and Windows 8.1 extended
support until January 10, 2023. To remind you, Windows 7
Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate were discontinued
in October 2014, and only the Windows 7 Professional version
is available through OEMs as of now.
Notably, the sales deadline for Windows 7 has come much
late than it was anticipated. Going by the Microsoft policy of
discontinuing sales for a particular Windows version after two
years of the next upgrade launch, this should have ended in
late October of 2014. But since the Windows 8 didn’t work in
favour of Microsoft, the deadline got extended and it is now
even 4 months later than the successor Windows 8 itself.

Microsoft have announced a new product to go along with the Surface Pro 4 tablet. The Surface Book is the first ever laptop made by Microsoft and it starts at US$ 1499.

It actually is more than just a laptop and more like a 2 in 1 as the screen is detachable from the keyboard and can be used as a standalone tablet. The display is 13.5 inches in size and has the same 267PPI as the Surface Pro 4. The screen has an aspect ratio of 3:2, a contrast ratio of 1800:1 and a resolution of 3000×2000 pixels.

You could call the Surface Book as the “Pro” version of the Surface Pro as it essentially is a larger Surface Pro 4 with a more capable keyboard. The Surface Book is compatible with the Surface Pen as well. The tablet alone is just 7.7mm thin and with the keyboard, the entire device is around 22.8mm thick.

Users can configure their devices to have upto 1TB of SSD storage and upto 16GB of RAM. There is an 8 Megapixel camera at the back and a 5 Megapixel camera at the front. It supports Windows Hello face authentication using the camera. The keyboard has backlight illumination as well as a a glass trackpad below it. The device will go on-sale from October 26th onwards starting at US$ 1499 but pre-orders begin from October 7th onwards.