Windows 8 users have 2 years to upgrade to Windows 8.1 before support ends

Microsoft company announced on the official support page that Windows 8 users have only two years to deploy Windows 8.1 in order to remain under the same lifecycle policy announced at launch. This means that in case you won’t be deploying Windows 8.1, your Windows 8 version will go dark on October 18, 2015.

Windows 8.1 will be launched on Friday, so Microsoft hopes that most, if not all Windows 8 users, will make the move to its new platform.

If you do decide to upgrade to Windows 8.1, Microsoft will continue to support the OS under its main support lifecycle time period, with mainstream support ending on January 9th, 2018 and extended support continuing until January 10th, 2023. In other words, there's very little to keep anyone with a Windows 8 PC from downloading Windows 8.1.