Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Developer Publishes Patch To Enable Windows 7 and 8.1 Updates On New Hardware (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the there's-always-a-way dept.

Earlier this month, Microsoft locked Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs running on select Intel and AMD processors from receiving future security updates. Now, a developer has found a workaround. From a report on ZDNet: The new patch, from a developer using the name 'Zeffy' on GitHub, may help people caught by Microsoft's update policy for PCs running older versions of Windows on hardware with Intel's seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors and AMD's recently released Bristol Ridge Ryzen chips. [...] Zeffy's patch promises to get around this situation, which stems from non-security updates released in March that added a function to detect the hardware's CPU generation. The developer notes that Microsoft's March 16 rollup updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 contained one particularly offensive changelog entry. As reported by Ghacks at the time, the two preview updates stated: "Enabled detection of processor generation and hardware support when PC tries to scan or download updates through Windows Update."

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Surprise, surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wow so it's true that Win7 can't support these new CPU's.... but only because M$ simply told Win7 "stop that". Who cares that it supported the chip last month.

  2. Re:This is very important news. by supremebob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd like to think that most businesses and IT professionals aren't going to install a Windows patch written by "Zeffy" on their customers computers, when doing so basically insures that what little support that they were still getting from Microsoft for Windows 7 installations disappears once they find that installed.

    Besides, the existence of this patch isn't going to fix the lack of new or updated drivers for Windows 7 on newer hardware.

    Personally, I find it kind of kind of scary that people are still trying to install an 8 year old OS on shiny new hardware, especially when knowing that you're not going to be able to get security patches for it about 2 1/2 years from now. Didn't people learn this lesson the hard way when they tried to cling onto Windows XP long after it left mainstream support? Once again, many people are going to eventually end up with is a bunch of unpatched systems still running out in the field, just waiting become a botnet the second someone installs malware or misconfigures the firewall at the site.