Microsoft Windows 7 support and sales cutoff dates worth knowing

Don’t worry, though, Windows 7 fans: There’s still another year until PC makers won’t be allowed to sell new machines with Windows 7 preloaded.

The long, slow march toward end-of-life of Microsoft’s currently most popular operating system is underway. As of October 30, 2013, Microsoft ceased selling boxed copies of Windows 7 at retail. (ZDNet’s Ed Bott posted back in April of this year about the pending October 30 cut-off date, but a few stories have popped up this week about it, so this is just a reminder.)