Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Revises Windows 7, 8 On Skylake Cut-Off Date To 2018 (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a ZDNet story: Microsoft is softening its stance on how long and how completely it will continue to support Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users running Skylake-based devices. Instead of cutting off full, extended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on Skylake on July 17, 2017, Microsoft will now guarantee full extended support to July 17, 2018. Microsoft also tightened up the wording as to what kinds of security updates Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users will get once that date comes. "After July 2018, all critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for Skylake systems until extended support ends for Windows 7, January 14, 2020 and Windows 8.1 on January 10, 2023," it said. Many users weren't pleased with Microsoft's initial decision. And it appears OEMs weren't thrilled about it, either. Adrienne Mueller, Product Manager at Lenovo said earlier this month, "The thought here is that Microsoft is really just pushing customers to move to Windows 10. A lot of reactions from our customers...is can we influence Microsoft and tell them they're not ready to transition and try to get them to prolong support on that? We've tried, and Microsoft's not really willing to do that."
But we will still push the auto update hard so all it's takes is one click and then you have 10.
And provide all updates (not selected updates) for Windows 7 on all CPUs until 2020, as previously made commitments have stated.
Windows 7 is Windows XP of the enterprise environment. No one upgrading to another version of Windows any time soon.
What does Microsoft have to do with support for a CPU...
I'm pretty sure I can install Windows 98 even on the newest hardware sold today, so what would prevent me from using Windows 7/8 with a skylake CPU... This just doesn't make sense to me.
It makes sense why Microsoft is pushing Windows 10. It's expensive to provide security and bug fix updates for an OS, let alone three of them. By the time of the EOL, Microsoft isn't bringing in much revenue on that OS. They're losing money, and it makes sense why they would want to EOL Windows 7 and 8.1 as soon as possible. Clearly they want to only have one version of Windows going forward, Windows 10. They will only have to support one version of Windows and the revenue won't drop off because it will continue to be shipped with new computers. Had Microsoft been honest and openly admitted this, I think many people would understand and at least appreciate the honesty. It's not to say they would have wanted to switch to Windows 10, but it would have bought Microsoft some goodwill with users.
Being forthcoming with official information about the telemetry and implementing a way to altogether disable it on all editions of Windows 10 would have improved the reception by end users. The most damaging thing has been the deceptive attempts to forcibly switch Windows 7 and 8.1 systems to Windows 10. Even pushing it as a recommended update is deceptive to many users who have been taught they need to install all of those updates or their computers will be vulnerable to malware.
All the deception has severely damaged the Windows 10 brand. They abandoned Internet Explorer because the name had acquired a toxic reputation for a lack of security, despite great improvements in recent versions. Internet Explorer had a toxic reputation and Windows 10 is well on its way to having every bit as toxic of a reputation. Microsoft may have undermined their own goals by pushing Windows 10 so aggressively.
Oh please. It's basically impossible for MS to "undermine their own goals"; it doesn't matter how badly they screw up, people are going to continue to use Windows no matter what.
Why should they care about "improving the reception by end users"? Why would they want to allow people to disable telemetry? It only benefits MS to keep it on, and it doesn't hurt MS if they make it hard or impossible to disable it. What are the users going to do, complain? Whine? They're certainly not going to abandon Windows; they've proven that over and over again.
Personally I think MS is being far too soft with users, especially corporate users and the government too. MS needs to force all of them to have telemetry turned on with all their keystrokes sent to MS, and advertisements shown to them as they work. No systems should be allowed to operate unless they're connected to the internet, and that goes for ones handling highly classified information too. This policy can only benefit MS, and users *will* accept it.
My wife went the Apple route when she went to look for a new laptop back in 2013 fora lot of the same reasons as listed in TFS. I was told to keep my mouth shut, and that she would do all the decision-making when it came to replacing her dead laptop. So, I follow her to Best Buy (I know, right?)... While I stand far enough back to not be part of the convo (but close enough to hear), the sales-schlub tells her that she was not allowed to buy a laptop with Windows 7 on it, but had to buy one with 8. Worst part was, he said it in such an arrogant well you're a girl, so trust the big bad techie guy here way that she just got pissed off. I followed her from a distance as she stormed out of the store, and let out a loudly-coughed "Bullshit!" just as I passed the confused salescritter.
Long story short, two hours later we drove around to other stores, then we drove home with a shiny new iPad. The Apple Store employee was nothing but kindness and accommodation as he listened to her needs, and (again as I kept distance), they had a very pleasant conversation as she chose what she wanted. She's been using the thing ever since.
I can only imagine what kind of special tech-support hell I'd be subjected to if she did bring home a Windows 8 laptop, got used to it, then had to go through the Win10 horseshit... instead, I got 3 years of pure bliss, and I think I had to help her once with something when the iCloud thing came out.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
You're forgetting one tiny little thing:
Us geeks influence friends and family.
I got my whole family switched over to Macs ~ 10 years back. It was an dead easy "sell" as my Dad was so fed up with Microsoft's constantly nickeling and diming. IF Microsoft would be reasonable and sell Windows (licenses) for $20 instead of $200 Windows 10 Pro USB flash drive then MAYBE people would stick with them but that ship has sailed LONG AGO in our family. Macs are just easier to use & support for non-technical people.
I am sticking with Windows 7 Pro only because of a few Direct3D 11 games and I need a version of Windows for game dev that supports my 32 GB RAM. But future Microsoft upgrades? Fuck 'em. I already have used two MacBook Pro's from work that I've been using for the past 4 years and absolute love them; I just bought my own MacBook Pro once I found out I can I can use my GTX 980Ti as en eGPU.
I tell my friends, "Sorry, I no longer support Windows past ver 7. I recommend a Mac or Linux box unless you have a specific reason you _need_ Windows. Microsoft has no respect for your privacy nor for empowering the UI. Why would you continue to give them money to allow them to constantly abuse you??"
I work for a Fortune 50 company -- you would be surprised at how many Mac's we have here. WAY, WAY, more then I would ever expect. The IT guys love Mac OSX significantly more then Windows. Hell, we're STILL upgrading Windows XP systems to Windows 7 systems.
The harder MS pushes Windows 10 the more people they are going to piss off. Push too hard and they could find themselves irrelevant much like IBM is today. Don't think this is a possibility? Consider the facts:
Android is already used by over 1.4 Billion people.
* http://www.theverge.com/2015/9...
Linux powers 98.8% of the top 500 supercomputers in the world; this is something Microsoft can only *dream* about.
* http://www.top500.org/statisti...
Free is eventually going to win over corporate greed. It doesn't really matter how long it takes; Microsoft's days are numbered. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but 20 years down the road MS will be struggling to maintain any sense of relevancy.
So yeah, MS _does_ undermine themselves. They are just to big to recognized it and they don't care. That's fine. I'll just take my business elsewhere. Apparently a lot of us geeks do as well.
--
Microsoft Windows 8 and 10, noun: A 64-bit compilation of 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition with 0 bit of understanding good UI.
Download VMware or whatever. Make a VM. Install Windows onto the VM.
At the first setup screen, before you create a username, hit CTRL+SHIFT+F3 to enter System Audit Mode. Get it updated, install your borwsers, dickbutt.exe, and whatever else you use. Shut it down using the Sysprep dialog box that is in your face. Choose "Enter System Audit Mode" with an action of "Shut Down". Do NOT check the "generalize" checkbox.
Boot it and patch it every Patch Tuesday.
If you ever need to install Windows, take a snapshot of the VM. Boot the VM. Using the Sysprep dialog box, tell it to enter OOBE and check the "generalize" checkbox. Tell it to shutdown.
You can now use a ton of different tools to take that Windows install and capture it as a deployable image on any hardware. System Center / Windows Deployment Services / etc. have Windows PE tools that will do this. Other tools exist, though I have not used them. I believe booting to an Acronis disc or similar will let you do the same deal.
After you capture the image using whatever method is easiest according to Google at the time you need to do it, revert the snapshot on the VM to undo the "generalize" step (which decrements your activation rearm count). There are other hacks to reset this count after you run out of rearms, but they're not clean and can break Windows Update.
For your 8007000E error, simply hit "check for updates" until you get the error, then reboot, then do it again. Last I checked, a machine will encounter this error 3 times before Windows Update works.
That's how I taught Grandma to do it.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.