7th Gen Intel not supporting older O/S ONLY W10

[markz]

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/16/10780876/microsoft-windows-support-policy-new-processors-skylake

Soon, when you buy a new PC, it won't support Windows 7 or 8. Microsoft has announced a change to its support policy that lays out its plans for future updates to its older operating systems, and the new rules mean that future PC owners with next-generation Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm processors will need to use Windows 10.

It's not usual for old PCs to fall short of the minimum requirements of a brand new operating system, but in this case, the opposite is happening. Microsoft and its partners will not be putting in the significant work necessary to make new hardware work with older versions of Windows. The old operating systems, at best, will merely lack the latest updates. At worst, they might not function properly.

"Policy starts with Intel's current processors, Skylake"

"Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support," Microsoft notes in a blog post published on Friday. "Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming 'Kaby Lake' silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming '8996' silicon, and AMD's upcoming 'Bristol Ridge' silicon."

This new policy doesn't mean that Windows 7 and 8.1 are no longer supported in general. The two operating systems will continue to get updates through January 14th, 2020 and January 10th, 2023, respectively. But that's only if you're using hardware that was contemporaneous with those operating systems.

For current PC owners, the detail to note is that Intel's current, sixth generation processors, known as Skylake, are the first that won't support either of the older versions of Windows. (Intel and Microsoft say that the platform and Windows 10 were designed for each other.) Microsoft is phasing in the policy now.

"Microsoft offers 18-month grace period for enterprise customers"

For the company's all-important enterprise customers, who often lag behind on hardware and software updates in order to guarantee stability, Microsoft says it will be maintaining a list of approved Skylake systems that are guaranteed to have Windows 7 and 8.1 support through July 17th, 2017. That gives companies an 18-month grace period to buy modern hardware for employees before committing and implementing upgrades to Windows 10.

After the grace period, only "the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for these configurations, and will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices." Companies and consumers, of course, can still buy older PC hardware that doesn't utilize Intel's Skylake platform or other modern CPUs — the last generation of supported Intel processors are known as Broadwell, and those chips are still widely available.

The policy change not only makes Microsoft's hardware partners happy — they no longer are on the hook to develop as many costly software updates for past versions of Windows — but it also helps Microsoft push adoption of Windows 10. The company sees the operating system as the "final" version of Windows; it's now a service, not a product, and this change better reflects that. There's only one current version of Windows, and while Microsoft will fulfill its legacy hardware obligations, it won't be expending resources to help users steer clear of its latest and greatest.

Just found that out, a bummer no doubt. I just switched over to Linux Mint 18 to give it a whirl.
That news does not affect me and my Windows 7 systems, one I bought used is 1st gen i7 the other is a refurbished 4th gen i5 which that system will do fine for a solid 10 years or more. I bought the 1st gen i7 to mess around and play with over clocking but I dont seem to be doing much of that at all. I might put it to use in a NAS but we dont need that, thought I might find a way to automatically backup a desktop file when anythings been changed in it, but I got that covered in the two clouds.

I do like the new Ryzen even though I see there are a few hiccups. The price points are great, but it will take some time to get a full feel for the new cpu breed. It might be a good layup to Intels domination and subsequent squeeze to force people to their info gathering Windows 10.

I tried Windows 10 in a Virtual Machine and I did not find anything of it. I got a feeling software and games will side with Bill Gates domination tactics. There was one game that did it, where the game would not allow to load if you had an i3 cpu.

 

[TheBeastie]

I have never paid for MS windows and I see little reason that MS actually care.
I remember dialing up my local pirate BBS and downloading windows 95 when it came out via the DOS program Terminate (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_(software) ) at 33.6kbaud.. and ran "setup /is" to force install from DOS directly from the fresh download on my single HD..
I have always been a casual PC gamer so I have always stuck to windows on my home desktop. Every Windows version I have promised my self I would buy it but once using it I haven't felt its up to par quite yet, maybe next time, I am still waiting.

MS Windows 10 is the easiest pirate friendly OS ever.. Just download and install KMSPico.. Install the latest Kaspersky anti-virus (trial version if you must) to make sure you got a clean version and windows 10 will work flawlessly as if its fully activated and all updates work etc. Kaspersky is designed to only get rid of nasties on your PC that are actually dangerous, allowing you to have Windows 10 for free flawlessly and safely is not something Kaspersky sees as a problem.
The truth is MS would rather have you as a freeloading desktop user then use something else, thats why its so easy these days, and I don't think Bill Gates is really engaged in MS as we used to think.

*EDIT*
Just looking up the old "Terminate" program, I used to love this BBS dial up softare.. it used to stop half way during installation and say "Don't underestimate the power of information, In the future those who control the flow of information will in fact controll the world". and at the sametime make the keyboard leds of NUM LOCK, CAPS LOCK, and SCROLL LOCK flash in a random fashion that was freaky... Looking back now with Google etc this slogan really did nail it..
http://www.terminate.com/tour/tour-install.html