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Microsoft updates support policy: New CPUs will require Windows 10

AlamoX

AlamoX

AlamoX

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In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says PCs based on new CPU architectures, including Intel's Skylake chips, will require Windows 10. A list of preferred systems will support older Windows versions on new hardware, but only for 18 months.
Yes, Windows 7 (currently in the Extended support phase) will continue to receive updates until January 14, 2020, and Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023. But in a series of "clarifications" to its support policy today, the company announced that support for those older Windows versions will be available only for "previous generations of silicon."
Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support... Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming "Kaby Lake" silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming "8996" silicon, and AMD's upcoming "Bristol Ridge" silicon.
full article on Znet

i dont know about you, but microsoft seem awefully pushy for windows 10, i think this is getting out of hand, i think PC users never needed a new OS like they do today.
 
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It sounds like Win7 will still run on Skylake/ future CPUs, just you won't be able to get tech support.

In which case, nobody cares, right?
 
There's no guarantee my tuner cards will work on Windows 10, hence my TV server is Windows 7 and will remain so. It needs internet access so I guess I'll need to reassess once Windows 7 goes EOL.

Server OSs will surely continue to get support so that isn't an issue. The only other machine I am reluctant to upgrade is my HTPC, mainly because it's so difficult to set it up correctly (especially regarding GPU drivers and settings), but I guess I can do it eventually.

The main issue for most people is all the "telemetry data" collected in Windows 10 to be honest.
 
It's sad news for PC if true.

I'd rather use consoles for gaming and Linux for a desktop PC than be blackmailed into using Windows 10.
 
mmj_uk said:
It's sad news for PC if true.

I'd rather use consoles for gaming and Linux for a desktop PC than be blackmailed into using Windows 10.
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Windows 10 can be made to look/act exactly like Windows 7 does, with a few minutes of work.

It's also much faster, so win win.
 
You still have forced Windows updates and driver updates* :( amongst a few other things and with the nature of Windows 10 any update any time could break functionality with shell replacements :S otherwise I'd be far more enthusiastic about it as at a low level in terms of performance, etc. it is a good OS.


*Sure there are ways to break it but that also leaves you unnecessarily insecure and/or does other less than desirable things to OS functionality as a trade off :S
 
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If it means better support for new extensions & better use of hardware-level security features then I don't really have a problem with it. It's enterprise support only anyway not consumer level so pretty irrelevant to almost all of us.
 
Rroff said:
You still have forced Windows updates and driver updates* :( amongst a few other things and with the nature of Windows 10 any update any time could break functionality with shell replacements :S otherwise I'd be far more enthusiastic about it as at a low level in terms of performance, etc. it is a good OS.


*Sure there are ways to break it but that also leaves you unnecessarily insecure and/or does other less than desirable things to OS functionality as a trade off :S
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?

You simply disable automatic driver updates. It takes a few seconds, even a child could do it.

Then your in the same situation as you are with Windows 7, not sure how you call that "insecure" - I mean you choose to install a new driver, or remain on the old one, big deal?
 
^^ Since the 1511 update it isn't that simple - they changed the way it handles automatic driver updates compared to before where you could simply tick a box to over-ride all its behaviour - now in some cases it will do its own thing with some drivers regardless of what you try to tell it (not sure if that is intended functionality or an oversight with the 1511 update).

The problem is that with Windows 10 - it will apply updates when it feels like it on starting up or shutting down and you can only defer restarts for updates for a limited time - which is silly as you can't know what you are going to be doing in 2-3 days time or whatever - for instance the other day I left my Windows 10 tablet going running unattended doing some monitoring tasks and came back to find it had automatically restarted to apply updates and I'd lost 20 minutes of logging data.

With Windows 7 I would regularly run Windows update to make sure I had critical security updates at a regular interval when I had time to deal with any potential issues i.e. at the weekend and/or have it prompt but not install important updates - with 10 the only way to over-ride its automatic behaviour is some nasty hacking beneath the bonnet that means a lot of messing about to undo to actually let it do updates when required and suppresses any notifications.

EDIT: You can use the show/hide updates tool to a limited extent to block automatic driver updates but it still has a habit of ignoring your attempts to block a forced update at a random point after a subsequent Windows update.
 
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Don't like it one bit, but I'd speculate that there will be some new interesting feature in Kaby Lake that requires OS support - probably to do with XPoint new type of memory, my guess is that CPU will include new commands to address that memory directly rather than via OS/sector driver, but OS would really need to recognise that the memory type is different from RAM and use it correctly.
 
Just a couple of days ago, I was offered an optional update in Windows 7 which turned out to be another Win 10 nag /downloader. That's 2 updates I've hidden now (KB3035583 & KB2952664).

At the time, I did wonder how much lower MS would stoop in order to coerce people onto Win 10. Absolutely shocking.

I'm using Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, and I've just upgraded to a Skylake system. So apparently, even though Win 7 will get extended support until 2020, my system will not. Thanks MS.

I find the idea of Win 10 installing new builds of itself without my persmission abhorrent.

An average Win 10 home user is basically just a beta tester. You are just being used to make sure the latest build is ok to roll out to businesses :(
 
njj1046 said:
I find the idea of Win 10 installing new builds of itself without my persmission abhorrent.
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Can be a bit of a support nightmare as well - as I do a bit of technical support for some people who aren't particularly tech savvy - when Windows 10 updates itself and then breaks support for their scanner (yet again) for instance that they are using day to day working from home it gets quite frustrating for everyone involved and I can't really see any option but to roll them back to their older OS so they have a static environment that won't suddenly confuse them out of nowhere.
 
Yea windows update in win10 is terrible.

I keep the update service on win 10 disabled and use a powershell script which lets me choose which updates to install. Otherwise it replaces drivers and all sorts of crazy nonsense all by itself.
 
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DmitryD said:
Don't like it one bit, but I'd speculate that there will be some new interesting feature in Kaby Lake that requires OS support - probably to do with XPoint new type of memory, my guess is that CPU will include new commands to address that memory directly rather than via OS/sector driver, but OS would really need to recognise that the memory type is different from RAM and use it correctly.
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Isn't that one of the benefits of NVMe or am I thinking of something else?
 
AlamoX said:
i dont know about you, but microsoft seem awefully pushy for windows 10, i think this is getting out of hand, i think PC users never needed a new OS like they do today.
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I also agree it's getting out of hand, and I'm amazed that the large OEMs are apparently supporting Microsoft with this - I'd be amazed if their larger customers weren't beating down their doors telling them how crazy this is. Not every business wants or can (especially heavily regulated industries) upgrade to Windows 10 and move their computer estate over - so what are they going to do when they want new laptops but sticking with Windows 7 or 8.1 in a few years time?

I can see some of the deadlines being pushed back quietly when they start approaching, as Microsoft & OEMs realise enterprises just aren't ready for this.
 
Lol, jokes on Microsoft, there's practically zero reason (unless you legit{as in for CPU limited programs[just saying]} have one) to bother with new CPUs with the wonder of tiny performance increases.

;)
 
What does this mean to an average user/Gamer? that new architecture wont work beyond haswell ect. or by "tech support" mean ringing Microsoft with obscure issues that a reinstall would prob fix yourself?
 
It's an attempt by Microsoft to stop OEM's shipping new PC's with older versions of Windows, ones that customers might actually want for various reasons.
 
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