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Microsoft Quietly Cuts Off Windows 7 Support For Older Intel Computers (computerworld.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: If your PC doesn't run Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2, you apparently won't be getting any more Win7 patches. At least, that's what I infer from some clandestine Knowledge Base documentation changes made in the past few days. Even though Microsoft says it's supporting Win7 until January 14, 2020, if you have an older machine -- including any Pentium III -- you've been blocked, and there's nothing you can do about it.
...if you're not an idiot and don't go to random sites/click "run" on downloaded files, you're reasonably safe...
Excellent, using your idea, we don't need to patch anything ever again. The answer has been right in front of us all this time, we would have never figured it out if you hadn't come along. I won't even need to help older relatives when they fuck up their PCs, I'll just print out your post and stick it below their screen
Windows 7 is the Best Windows. , better than all versions which came before it and after it. The only thing it lacks is out of the box USB 3.0 support. The drivers not on the install disk but you ca add it.. That's all. It's everything you need.
Windows 8 was a stupid movie. "Let's change the UI, because, fuck it, let's change the UI." Nothing else.
And Windows 10 with its intrusive spying and adverts truly sucks ass. It didn't add anything of value either.
Microsoft is pushing out new versions because no one has gone for their subscriptions so new versions is how they make money. That is all.
> b0s0z0ku : Also, if you're not an idiot and don't go to random sites/click "run" on downloaded files, you're reasonably safe.
Wow. You really are an idiot. Precisely the sort of idiot who needs to be protected with security patches.
Well said. You responded far more politely than I would have to a person is a living, breathing example of the kind of fuckwit who for years helped to keep Linux from being widely accepted. Newbies would drop by a Linux site hoping for help. They would ask questions that were very elementary but not stupid, often after having invested hours trying to fix a problem themselves. Far too often the "advice" they got from twatwaffles like this was that they were morons who shouldn't be allowed to own a computer.
Some day, perhaps creatures like this will have their noses rubbed in the fact that for most people, a computer is a means to an end, not the end itself.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
So, if a company just decides they don't want to honor the promises they made, they should be able to walk away whenever they want? That's incredibly moronic and you know it. Microsoft led customers to believe they would receive support through the EOL date. Prematurely ending support is going back on their word, and it shouldn't be legal for them to do this.
I'm not arguing that what MS is doing here is right. It's just LESS shitty than cramming Windows 10 down users' gullets, with its built-in spyware cr@p and ever-changing interface.
Or just buy the newest hardware that can run Windows 7, patch it as much as possible, and keep good anti-malware software installed after the drop-dead date of 2020. Assuming this date isn't extended for critical patches.
Win 7, even updated, doesn't attempt to shove "Microsoft accounts" (vs local or domain) and OneDrive down users' gullets.
Sure, most people do not run Win7 on computers that old. But there are embedded systems like displays, measurement equipment, medical equipment, etc. that will be affected by this and MS was fine doing this deceptively and without warning and without giving people time do make arrangements. They also did it _while_ these systems are officially compliant with the Win7 minimum requirements. That is just completely unacceptable, but so very much like MS. No honor, no care for the customer, just always after the biggest profit they can get for cheap.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Not importance-wise. Likely applications that will be networked is medical imaging, display boards, some measurement equipment, SCADA system front-ends, etc. This is a real fail on their part and, if I were up to me, they would be liable for any and all damage they cause.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
it's not that it is older architecture that they're dumping support for, it's HOW THEY'RE DOING IT.
windows 7 has a published EOL. they aren't adhering to it.
they release buggy patches. they said they'd fix them. they are not.
__
similarly, and even more fucked up, microsoft killed support for windows 7 and 8.x for *NEW* processors (amd am4 bristol ridge/ryzen, intel kaby lake and newer).. and tried to nix it for skylake as well. also violating their own published lifecycle.
THIS IS NOT OK. regardless of the age of the affected systems. they have policies, we expect them to fucking follow them.. just as they expect us to abide by their draconian license agreements and bless their invasive data gathering and 'privacy' policy.
I keep saying - This is just the thin end of the wedge. Or in this case, now a slightly thicker part of the thin end of the wedge; It'll keep getting worse and worse until 'no support in 2020 but you can still use it on existing systems' slowly turns into 'deliberately crippled on all systems so you have to use windows 10'
Don't listen to all these astroturfers putting down old systems just because they're old.
If they could run Win7, there's no good reason why the goal posts should suddenly be moved.
Linux doesn't have good proprietary drivers and is useless at multimedia.
Linux has good open-source drivers, and is good at multimedia. When it comes to embedded, especially with something like an MRI machine, that's somewhat irrelevant since you'll be writing your own drivers anyway.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
You're far from alone in that, my friend. A bunch of people I know got the same kind of treatment. I stayed with Apple and Microsoft for business reasons. I might finally start looking at Linux again soon. It won't be because I think the fanbois' manners have improved, but because I really don't like the "you don't own it, you only rent it" approach to software the big boys are taking.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Brick the Windows 10 machines too and be done with it.
As long as windows 10 is spyware, changing to it is not "upgrading" or "modernizing". It's acceptance of abuse. And your insistence that it is something else is assistance of abuse.
When I can no longer run windows 7 on my PC, I will move the installation into VMware and run Linux on my PC. I will never run any newer version of Windows. Microsoft is now nothing but a malware distributor, and anyone proposing you use Windows is aiding criminal activity.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Why is it unreasonable to expect an OS to be supported until the date published by its developer a very long time ago?
It's not unreasonable but it might be ill advised.
And it makes for a real interesting conversation for what you will use for your next generation machinery controllers.
It's easy for us to rant on Slashdot about how stupid these companies who might be expecting say the PC controlling a huge forge to be supported for the length of time it was stated to be supported. Fr the PC jockey's view, 5 years is ancient.
But - and here's the kicker - when the manufacturer of that 100 million dollar forge is trying to make the sale - the buyer is going to ask about what operating system controls the forge. And if Microsoft OS - how will they know how long Microsoft will provide support will be asked. Finally - what happens if Microsoft drops support. Two years early? 5 years early?
The number of devices that are left hanging are small. But odds are they are big and expensive. And the takaways are two:
Microsoft has decided they don't have to offer support for as long as they say they do.
You cannot trust what they say.
This lack of veracity would have a rather large impact on purchasing decisions.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It's amazing to me how often Windows is 10-20 years behind Linux in such basic features. Here's a screenshot from Gnome 1.0 in 1999. The 2x2 panel at the bottom left is for switching between virtual desktops (workspaces). It was included in 1.0 because it was considered a basic feature in Linux by 1999.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
And it makes for a real interesting conversation for what you will use for your next generation machinery controllers.
Yeah I'm kind of amazed how little consideration purchasers of this expensive equipment typically give to these sorts of important questions. I run a manufacturing company and I'm SUPER careful about investing in software or hardware that I think even has a chance of not being supported in future years. If something runs Windows that's potentially fine if I'm only expecting the equipment to have a service life of 3-5 years. Anything longer than that and there had better be a very specific service contract involved or it needs to run a system that doesn't depend on a third party for support. The presses and other heavy equipment we use in our company have software written by and for the company that sells the press and they can support it 100% for the expected life of the device. No third parties are involved and that's to our benefit.
Microsoft has decided they don't have to offer support for as long as they say they do.
Which is a risk you take whenever you depend on a third party who is not a signatory to the equipment purchase. You're basically making an assumption unless someone who actually works for Microsoft is in the room and signs a commitment obligating Microsoft for support.