Windows 7 and 8.1 will be supported on Skylake processors until July, 2018

[Karlston]

Microsoft just extended its deadline for compatibility and reliability fixes for Win7 and 8.1 running on the newest Intel processors (6th-generation “Skylake”) until July 17, 2018.

 

More importantly, all security patches will be available until Win7 and Win8.1 end of life: Jan 14, 2020 for Win7 and Jan 10, 2023 for Win 8.1.

 

Source: Microsoft

 

For normal Windows 7 and 8.1 users, that’s a good deal. It means that you can buy a fast, new Intel-based computer and trust Microsoft to keep providing updates for it until mid-2018. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Microsoft extended that, too.

 

The key is the security patches. Basically, you can buy a new computer, slap Win7 on it and, if you can get the drivers to work, you don’t have to worry about it going obsolete until it’s… well, until it’s obsolete.

 

Who knows what’ll happen by 2020.

 

Windows News Skylake

 

Source: Windows 7 and 8.1 will be supported on Skylake processors until July, 2018 (AskWoody.com - Woody Leonhard)

[steven36]

30 minutes ago, Karlston said:

For normal Windows 7 and 8.1 users, that’s a good deal. It means that you can buy a fast, new Intel-based computer and trust Microsoft to keep providing updates for it until mid-2018. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Microsoft extended that, too.

Nothing wrong with skylake the problem is Microsoft  you can always put Linux  on it if you dont want Windows 10 in 2018 . By  then Skylake will no longer be bleeding edge  no ways.  That's what turned me against AMD  they drop support to fast   for older hardware . Intel  has much better support on the long haul. This is why most business  use Intel  they dont like buying new pcs  tell Microsoft stops supporting  them . Most will just skip skylake all together .

 

Many small businesses when they upgraded from XP to Windows 7 done  it cheap as they could,  they just bought refurbished PCs with windows 7.

 

Thats why some said its best to wait tell after Redstone 2 to buy a new pc because Intel's 7th Generation Kaby Lake and 200-Series Chipset will be out and this is what  Redstone 2 update focuses on for Microsoft Surface Devices And 3rd party PCs. .

 

[Karlston]

Microsoft claims that the backflip is because they're listening to customers blah blah... BS, there's more spin there than in an average washing machine's lifetime.

 

I suspect the real reason is that the lacklustre sales of Skylake PC's have made PC manufacturers and Intel put enormous pressure on Microsoft to rescind the premature support end-of-life they brought in to "convince" more to upgrade to Windows 10.

 

Pressure from businesses has probably helped too.

 

This is a huge win for PC makers, and for the bulk of Windows 7 & 8.1 users who have rejected all of Microsoft's "enthusiastic" Windows 10 encouragement. AND, best of all, it's delivered a huge kick to Microsoft's tender bits.

[heyyahblah]

Wait, how the fuck does this benefit me? I don't understand "supported". I just upgraded to skylake hardware a month ago. I don't plan on upgrading my computer for at least another 5 years or so. Except maybe graphics card, or faster SSDs (like M.2 drives, or SATA EXPRESS) so how does this kill me getting support for Win 7 just for having a Skylake i5 6500 processor?

[steven36]

1 hour ago, heyyahblah said:

Wait, how does this benefit me? I don't understand "supported". I just upgraded to skylake hardware a month ago. I don't plan on upgrading my computer for at least another 5 years or so. Except maybe graphics card, or faster SSDs (like M.2 drives, or SATA EXPRESS) so how does this kill me getting support for Win 7 just for having a Skylake i5 6500 processor?

You get a extra year of  all updates that's how

 

Quote

In January 2016, Microsoft announced that it would end support of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on Skylake processors effective July 17, 2017; after this date, only the "most critical" updates for the two operating systems would be released for Skylake users if they have been judged not to affect the reliability of the OS on older hardware, and only Windows 10 would be supported on Skylake, as well as all future Intel CPU microarchitectures beginning with Skylake's successor Kaby Lake. Terry Myerson stated that Microsoft had to make a "large investment" in order to reliably support Skylake on older versions of Windows, and that future generations of processors would require further investments. Microsoft also stated that due to the age of the platform, it would be "challenging" for newer hardware, firmware, and device driver combinations to properly run under Windows 7. All future Intel CPU microarchitectures, beginning with Skylake's successor Kaby Lake, will be fully supported by Microsoft only under Windows 10.

 

On March 18, 2016, in response to criticism over the move, primarily from enterprise customers, Microsoft announced revisions to the support policy, changing the cutoff for support and non-critical updates to July 17, 2018 and stating that Skylake users would receive all critical security updates for Windows 7 and 8.1 through the end of extended support.

As it stands  like 2 years before windows 7 stops updating and and like 5 year before windows 8.1 runs out you will only be able  to get all critical security updates  using skylake no recommenced or optional. updates .Still it would be safe to use .  

 

 

[Karlston]

A bit more...

An attempt to force new PCs to run Windows 10 after July 2017 created a customer backlash instead

Microsoft said today that it has tweaked its support options for customers who want to run the latest Intel Skylake processors on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Microsoft will extend its specialized support options for a year and offer more updates to those customers when its specialized support period expires.

A convoluted history

These are likely welcome changes to what Microsoft set up in January, when the company outlined a plan to provide specialized support for business customers who wanted to buy a PC powered by Intel's latest Skylake processor, but who also wanted to stick with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Microsoft agreed to support dozens of specific PCs, including gaming PCs from companies like Dell.

 

After July 2017, though, that support would end -- save for only the most critical updates -- and customers were expected to move to Windows 10. That was much too soon for enterprises, most of whom have only recently migrated to Windows 7.

 

The idea, from Microsoft's perspective, was that the growing gap between the aging Windows 7 OS and the latest Skylake hardware offered many opportunities for bugs and other failures, and they would only increase over time. Pushing customers to Windows 10 at the end of that transitional period would help mitigate this.

 

But after customer backlash, the support period for Windows 7/8.1 on Skylake will now end a year later, on July 17, 2018. After that, Microsoft said all critical security updates will be targeted for Skylake systems until extended support ends, a softening of the "most critical" language Microsoft used previously.

Keeping the customer happy

Jeremy Korst, the general manager of Windows marketing, said the company has "received feedback" on how it had handled the previous rollout -- negative feedback, presumably. "A key part of this update was our commitment to continuing to lead with a customer-first approach," he wrote in a blog post.

 

Customers, though, quickly picked up on the differences: Why did support for Skylake systems end in 2017, especially when extended support for Windows 7 on the previous Broadwell systems ended in 2020? And what did this "most critical" language actually mean for the updates those Skylake systems received? Older versions of Windows Server also runs on Skylake, but without the tangle of support options.

 

All these questions undoubtedly influenced Microsoft's revised stance. "This guidance is designed to help our customers purchase modern hardware with confidence, while continuing to manage their migrations to Windows 10," Korst wrote.

This story, "Microsoft relents, extending support for Skylake PCs with older Windows versions" was originally published by PCWorld.

Source: Microsoft relents, extending support for Skylake PCs with older Windows versions (InfoWorld - Mark Hachman (PC World))

[Ryrynz]

7 hours ago, Karlston said:

Microsoft claims that the backflip is because they're listening to customers blah blah... BS, there's more spin there than in an average washing machine's lifetime.

 

I suspect the real reason is that the lacklustre sales of Skylake PC's have made PC manufacturers and Intel put enormous pressure on Microsoft to rescind the premature support end-of-life they brought in to "convince" more to upgrade to Windows 10.

 

Pressure from businesses has probably helped too.

 

This is a huge win for PC makers, and for the bulk of Windows 7 & 8.1 users who have rejected all of Microsoft's "enthusiastic" Windows 10 encouragement. AND, best of all, it's delivered a huge kick to Microsoft's tender bits.

 

I don't get the point in sitting on 7. 8 is a much better OS and 10 will soon surpass 8 considering the development it's constantly undergoing.

[haxzion]

After July 2018 your skylake setup will burn if you keep using 7 or 8 

My guess is that till 2018 we will be forced to upgrade to a brand new Windows OS cause let's face it Win10 sucked

[steven36]

16 hours ago, Ryrynz said:

 

I don't get the point in sitting on 7. 8 is a much better OS and 10 will soon surpass 8 considering the development it's constantly undergoing.

Only way it could surpass windows 7 or windows 8.1 to the privacy minded people is if Windows 10 removes its data sucker . Even if they fix every bug in it  in the year 2017 the fact it has a data sucker in it remains . Windows 10 just passed a 14 year old Zombie O/S XP  the other day and the only reason most left it For windows 7 was because Microsoft  forced them off. I was on XP for 10 years and lots of people were still on it after . Compared to the  people on Linux there's still a lot on XP.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, haxzion said:

After July 2018 your skylake setup will burn if you keep using 7 or 8 

It want burn  you will only be able to receive the updates you to have  to have.  And most users  should not  be thinking about buying Skylake no ways the reviews  i read its no better than old hardware.

Quote

Right now if you’re even on Haswell, the idea of an upgrade shouldn’t even exist.

Maybe in 2017 if you're a gamer  you may want update to Intel’s 10nm Cannonlake  but Intel 10nm will get better and better every year so the longer you put off and upgrade tell like 2020 or 2023 when windows 10 or 11 or what ever is out by then becomes mandatory on old hardware  to get any updates the better  you're hardware  will be. I normally  dont bother tell i buy a new machine .