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Windows 10 Creators Upgrade Cuts Support For Some Intel PCs Early (pcworld.com)
Windows PCs with Intel's Clover Trail Atom chips will not upgrade to the Windows 10 Creators Update, which could wind up being trouble in the future. PCWorld reports: Owners of some Windows 10 laptops and tablets are crashing into a worrying roadblock when they try to install the Windows 10 Creators Update. Windows Update initially says the notebooks are compatible with the upgrade, but fails to install it after downloading the setup files, instead displaying the following message: "Windows 10 is no longer supported on this PC. Uninstall this app now because it isn't compatible with Windows 10." That sounds ominous, but you don't need to uninstall your existing version of Windows 10, and there's no app to uninstall. Instead, the message means your PC's hardware isn't compatible with the Creators Update.
A recent ZDNet article thrust this issue into the spotlight, but Microsoft laid out details about the error in an April forum post. Microsoft won't let affected hardware install the Creators Update because "Icons and/or text throughout the Windows interface may not appear at all, or may appear as solid color blocks on some devices." Can I install the Windows 10 Creators Update? Nope. But you might be able to in the future, according to the April forum post. "Microsoft is working with our partners to provide compatible drivers for these processors. Until then, Windows Update will prevent devices containing one of the processors listed above from installing the Creators Update." [Devices with these Intel "Clover Trail" processors are impacted: Atom Z2760; Atom Z2520; Atom Z2560; Atom Z2580.]
A recent ZDNet article thrust this issue into the spotlight, but Microsoft laid out details about the error in an April forum post. Microsoft won't let affected hardware install the Creators Update because "Icons and/or text throughout the Windows interface may not appear at all, or may appear as solid color blocks on some devices." Can I install the Windows 10 Creators Update? Nope. But you might be able to in the future, according to the April forum post. "Microsoft is working with our partners to provide compatible drivers for these processors. Until then, Windows Update will prevent devices containing one of the processors listed above from installing the Creators Update." [Devices with these Intel "Clover Trail" processors are impacted: Atom Z2760; Atom Z2520; Atom Z2560; Atom Z2580.]
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Welcome to the new Micro[screw the customer]soft.
The fact that PowerVR-based Atoms have worthless driver support is Intel's fault: Microsoft's contribution to the debacle is creating a situation where upgrading the OS actually shortens the support window. If running Win8.1, these devices would get the pre "windows as a service" treatment; which in the case of 8.1 is mainstream support until 1/09/2018; extended support until 1/10/2023; if running Windows 10, a given major update gets only "at least 18 months"; after which you are potentially out of luck unless you can move to the next major update. And, since 'feature' and 'security' updates are now being aggregated; having a GPU with drivers that don't play nice with some aspect of WDDM means no security updates.
Intel's support for the PowerVR-based Atoms has always been shamefully bad; and they deserve full blame for that; but that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft's big push for Win10 upgrades...doesn't look so good...for hardware where it now(well after users made the choice, and without any way for them to know) means that Win10 devices will fall out of support faster than Win8.1 devices will.
It's also not a favorable anecdote for the 'Windows' glorious stable driver interface!' argument that always gets trotted out: It's not a huge surprise that an older part that always had shit support isn't getting shiny new drivers with WDDM 2.2 support; but Win10 1703 has apparently changed enough that those parts, which do have functioning drivers for earlier WDDM versions(probably 1.2 or 1.3; since they were introduced to support Win8; maybe 2.0 depending on how much polish they received for Win10) can't even continue to offer the features that they previously offered if you update to version 1703; while they did work in 1607.
That sort of stability an backward compatibility used to be something that Microsoft at least tried at and cared about; the change isn't a flattering one. Entirely in keeping with Microsoft's Apple-envy approach of late; but not a good thing.