The next version of Office will run on Windows 8 as you’d expect, but it will run on Windows 7 too.
This is a timely reminder about the support lifecycle dates for Windows - the fact that you can now stick with whatever OS came on the machine for a good many years is often overlooked.
I’m indebted to my good friend Ed Bott for linking me to the correct pages on the Microsoft website; these key dates should be tattooed on the forehead of anyone working in the Microsoft world.
The end-of-support dates are as follows:
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Windows XP SP3 is 8 April 2014
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Vista SP2 is 11 April 2017
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Windows 7 SP1 is 14 January 2020
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Windows 8 will be 10 January 2023
So if you want to carry on using Windows 7 instead of Windows 8, your OS will be supported for the rest of this decade.
What about preloads? Microsoft has announced that OEMs will be able to sell Windows 7 preloaded until 25 October 2014, so there are two years left for that. Meanwhile, boxed copies of Windows 7 can be on sale until at least 25 October 2013.
And let’s not forget downgrade rights - you can always downgrade from the currently installed Windows version to the previous version if you wish.
[This is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the November 2012 issue of PC & Tech Authority magazine].
