MANILA, Philippines – Are you looking to buy a computer with Windows 7 pre-installed? You’ll want to hurry.

Microsoft has finalized the end date for the sale of personal computers with Windows 7 pre-installed.

According to its product lifecycle page, Microsoft will cease selling consumer-level machines with Windows 7 pre-installed on Oct 31, 2014. This means that machines with Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate will not be sold after that date.

Business-grade machines – computers with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed – will still be sold after October 31.

Windows 7 was released to the public in Oct 22, 2009. Its successor, Windows 8, came out 3 years later on Oct 26, 2012. Windows 8.1, a service pack that further improved the operating system, was publicly released online on Oct 17, 2013.

Retail sales of Windows 7 software was discontinued on Oct 31, 2013.

A report on Neowin.net speculated that Business-level Windows 7 machines may see continued sales at least till April 8, 2014 due to the inevitable obsolesence of Windows XP, a 12-year-old operating system.

April 8 is the end date for extended support for machines running Windows XP. The end of support for XP may increase the risk of security vulnerabilities and program incompatibility. Companies may have been given this additional time to upgrade to business-grade Windows 7 machines.

Whether the average consumer will switch to Apple’s operating system, snatch a last-minute Windows 7 PC, or upgrade to Windows 8.1 will ultimately depend on the needs of the user relative to the price point of the machines available to him. – Rappler.com