Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to push the world onto Windows 10 by revising its support policy in a way that means newly purchased PCs will no longer support older editions of its operating system. After that point businesses that want to run older Windows versions on new machines will have to rely on downgrade rights or software assurance rights under volume license agreements.
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The news is specifically aimed at the enterprise sector where systems based on AMD, Intel and Qualcomm won’t get support if they don’t meet the criteria set down by Microsoft. And while the Windows 7/8.1 integration is being designed with Intel’s Skylake in mind, new PCs based on upcoming chips-Intel’s Kaby Lake, Qualcomm’s 8996 chips, or AMD’s Bristol Ridge-will all require Windows 10.
In a series of “clarifications”…the company announced that support for…Windows [7 and 8.1] will be available only for “previous generations of silicon”. After July 2017, only the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be released for these devices.
Ron Coughlin, President, Personal Systems at HP Inc. informed, “Our new device line-up, including the HP Elite X2, HP EliteBook Folio and HP EliteBook 1040 G3 takes advantage of these most advanced capabilities to deliver terrific experiences for our customers”. The company is now reaching out to enlisted software testers to recruit iOS users with iPhone 5s or later to test the Windows Phone keyboard. These processors are out, but Microsoft considers them “transition” parts.
It is all known that, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 upgrading are free of cost; around 2.6 percentages of people on this globe are still using the Windows 8 operating system.
Microsoft will also reduce the burden on its engineering team by not supporting the newer processors on its older versions of operating systems.
Specifically, you won’t be able to run Windows 7 or 8.1 on Skylake CPUs or later.
Microsoft cites an example of the difference between running Windows 7 and Windows 10 on a Skylake processor.
Microsoft has been pushing updates of Windows 10 for a while now. The former will still have updates until January 14, 2020, while the latter will still receive updates until January 10, 2023. Microsoft will support the list of Skylake PCs running Windows 7 and 8.1 for only 18 months, until July 2017.
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Microsoft’s new generation of processors will be compatible only with the Windows 10 operating system (OS), the tech giant announced last Friday. Windows 7 or 8.x is not guaranteed to do so.
