San Francisco, Aug 21 (IANS): Microsoft has announced it would stop accepting new apps for Windows 8 from October 31 in an attempt to redirect the focus of app developers towards Windows 10.

Microsoft would stop delivering Windows 8-based phone and device app updates from July 2019 and 2023 respectively, Microsoft Store Team wrote in a blog post on Monday.

"After these dates, we will stop distributing app updates to Windows Phone 8.x or earlier and Windows 8 or 8.1 devices; at that time, updates will only be made available to customers using Windows 10 devices," the post added.

Even though the tech giant would put a halt to accepting new app submissions for Windows 8, the company claimed that this would not affect existing apps based on the earlier Windows version.

"We encourage you to explore how you can port your existing app to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) where you can create a single Windows 10 app package that your customers can install onto all device families," the post added.

Last year, Microsoft had admitted that it had blocked Windows 7 and 8 updates on Intel's seventh generation Core i3, i5, Qualcomm's 8996 and other processors to "force" users to upgrade to Windows 10.