Why does Microsoft block updates for Windows 7 and 8.1?

It has long been known that Microsoft plans to cancel the support for updates for Windows 7 and 8.1 operating systems on machines equipped with the seventh generation of Intel processors, as well as on systems equipped with AMD processors of the Ryzen series, but there was no certainty about it. Now it became known that this will happen in the current month. Already, users with new processors, but using older versions of the operating system, report that the updates were blocked. Locking means that systems using the above processors will no longer receive new updates.

New Policy

This new policy of the company was announced in January of last year, and several months later its terms were amended. The above processors, as well as the processors that will be released after them, will interact only with Windows 10. Older versions of the OS will still be supported by older processors, but the compatibility of these processors with the new version of the OS will be frozen.

"Frontier" processors

The sixth-generation Intel processors on the border were in an unusual situation. Some systems with these processors will continue to work with the operating systems Windows 7 and 8.1, but not all. The processors, supplied by sixteen certain manufacturers of original equipment, will continue to receive updates, but the owners of the remaining Intel systems of the sixth generation will have to upgrade to Windows 10.

Potential difficulties with the update

The policy of Microsoft in itself does not seem unacceptable. In practice, the operating systems Windows 7 and 8.1, most likely, would normally work on the processors of the latest generation. However, Microsoft could not just shrug and assume that everything will work fine on older processors. The company would have to test and evaluate the functioning of old operating systems on new computers, and it is easy to understand why the company decided not to do so. As for the sixth-generation processors, sixteen original equipment manufacturers mentioned above volunteered to conduct the necessary tests. Nothing like this was done with respect to the seventh-generation processors.

What is the problem?

However, the worst thing is how exactly such changes are introduced. Microsoft claims that the new processors have new features and hardware elements that make compatibility with older OS difficult or even impossible. There is a grain of truth in this, as both Intel and AMD have made major changes to their products, such as, for example, power management of the processor, and at a certain level it can be assumed that Microsoft will not be able to fully support these features on older versions of the operating system. In Windows 7 there is even built-in support for UBB 3.0 and the node version manager.

But Windows 8.1 is a completely different story, as it is a relatively young operating system that is very popular and is maintained at the official level, that is, it should receive not only security patches, but also full-fledged improvements and updates. Unlike Windows 7, this operating system includes built-in support for the above functions, so you will not have any problems with the installation. Refusal of support on the new processors of the operating system, which until today has full support of the manufacturer, is rather strange. It looks as if all Microsoft's promises regarding full support for Windows 8.1 were empty words.

Windows 8.1 will be supported on a full scale for another year or two years, and Microsoft could easily extend this support to new processors. After all, to wait for the moment when Windows 10 will be the only full-scale system to introduce a new policy, it took not so long.