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Windows 10 Will Cut Off Devices With Older CPUs (pcworld.com)
Reader Baron_Yam shares a PCWorld report: No Windows 10 Creators Update for you, Microsoft says -- at least, not if you happen to be the unlucky owner of certain older Atom-based Windows devices, and other aging models in the future. After stories arose of failed attempts to upgrade such hardware to the Creators Update, Microsoft confirmed late Wednesday that any hardware device that falls out of the manufacturer's support cycle may be ineligible for future Windows 10 updates. In the case of the four "Clover Trail" processors (part of the Cloverview platform) that have fallen into Intel's End of Interactive Support phase, they will be ineligible for the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft confirmed. Instead, they'll simply be offered the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, plus security updates through January, 2023, the end of the original Windows 8.1 support period. The problem, however, is that Microsoft's language opens up the possibility that any unsupported hardware device could be excluded from future Windows 10 updates. "Recognizing that a combination of hardware, driver and firmware support is required to have a good Windows 10 experience, we updated our support lifecycle policy to align with the hardware support period for a given device," Microsoft said in a statement. "If a hardware partner stops supporting a given device or one of its key components and stops providing driver updates, firmware updates, or fixes, it may mean that device will not be able to properly run a future Windows 10 feature update." The reader adds, it's not a case of "feature updates are not recommended and may not work", it's a case of "we will block feature updates to your device".
I can see video cards that need drivers, but what support does a CPU need to keep functioning with newer versions of Windows?
They're blocking patches to older OSes if you run them on newer hardware. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/3181814/windows/microsoft-says-its-blocking-windows-7-8-patches-on-latest-amd-intel-chips.html)
The pretext is to ensure better compatibility but it seems a lot more likely this is to ensure that if you're in a Windows environment, you're on an upgrade treadmill.
Update your hardware? Now you have to update your OS. And the hardware update cycle tends to be 3-5 years, whereas keeping an OS for over a decade isn't that uncommon.
We did prevent this. We're still quite happily running on Windows 7, even on machines purchased just a few months ago.
Of course, Microsoft has also rigged the system so you can no longer buy a new PC with Windows 7 preinstalled. So now we're not buying any new PCs for a while and will make do with what we've got. We're assuming something has to give before the 2020 cliff, whether it's MS providing a version of Windows 10 without the major downsides for non-enterprise customers, Apple getting their act together again so MacBooks are a viable alternative, or some other platform becoming more attractive to software developers so alternatives to the key programs we depend on are available elsewhere.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
That's what MS is best at: screwing up its customers. Those of you who are still using Windows because you are locked in, you have my commiserations. The rest, I won't say screw you because you already are.
You can still order workstations from Dell with Windows 7. But you can't pick the latest generation i7 CPU.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard