Microsoft has ended all speculation surrounding the launch date of its next-generation operating system after Steven Sinofsky announced during the company’s annual sales meeting yesterday that customers will be able to get a copy on Friday October 26, on a new computer or as an upgrade.

The announcement by Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows division, follows an earlier promise at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto earlier this month that Windows 8 would arrive sometime in October.  The date was later confirmed in a post by Brandon LeBlanc on the firm’s official Windows Blog. 

There was no word on the exact date we can expect Microsoft’s Surface tablets however, but given that consumers will be able to get the software individually or on a new PC the same day, it’s entirely possible the tablet will be available immediately on the launch date. More details will no doubt follow as the date nears.

Microsoft really wants you to stop using XP and Vista. Office 2013, which preview released this week, only supports Windows 7 and 8. XP is still the most widely-used Windows version (although Net Applications says that could change this month). From the perspective of customers, the move doesn't make much sense. But Microsoft, of course, is more interested getting them to upgrade.

Microsoft gambles a lot on this decision. According to NetApps, 47.28 percent of computers run the rather old Windows XP and a minuscule 7.29 percent use Vista. Combined they have 54.57 percent usage share, which is not insignificant by any matter and a clear warning sign about the move. Office 2013 cuts off more than half the current Windows install base.

Another week, another big Microsoft announcement.

The tech behemoth has scheduled a press event for 3 p.m. ET on Monday featuring CEO Steve Ballmer. The event will be live-streamed here. A media alert announcing the event was scant on details. However, the smart money is on an Office 15 announcement.

In the Skype support forums, "shocked" users had said private instant messages had been re-sent to other contacts.

Skype then admitted messages sent between two users were being copied to a third party, in "rare circumstances".

The net-calling firm said it was working on a fix for the bug, which appears to have been introduced in an update to Skype applied in June.

Some users said they would stop using the service because of the glitch.