Microsoft Clarifies Windows 7's Retail Sales Deadline, Admits Lifecycle Error

Yesterday, in Microsoft Preparing to Extend Retail Sales for Windows 7?, I highlighted a recent change in Microsoft's lifecycle pages. The change showed that both retail sales and PC sales with Windows 7 preinstalled had both been modified to "to be determined."

After that article was posted, Microsoft reached out to me to help clarify the situation. Apparently, the web site was updated with incorrect information.

Here's what Microsoft had to say:

"We have yet to determine the end of sales date for PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled. The October 30, 2014 date that posted to the Windows Lifecycle page globally last week was done so in error. We have since updated the website to note the correct information; however, some non-English language pages may take longer to revert to correctly reflect that the end of sales date is “to be determined”. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused our customers. We’ll have more details to share about the Windows 7 lifecycle once they become available.

Additionally, we are confirming that the Retail software end of sales date for Windows 7 did happen on October 30, 2013."

So, the truth here is that Windows 7 retail sales did, indeed, end on October 30, 2013, however, you can still purchase PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled, and that end-date has yet to be decided.

Here's what the matrix looks like today (after Microsoft fixed the errors):

And, here's what it looked like yesterday (with the error still intact):