Microsoft says new PCs based on Skylake onwards won’t run Windows 7 or 8.1

Microsoft has decided to change it’s support policy that future PC owners with next-generation Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm processors will need to use Windows 10. Windows 7 and 8.1 won’t be updated for future processors, starting with Intel’s Skylake platform

To put it simply, you can’t possibly run Windows 7 or 8/8.1 onto future PCs based on Skylake onward. Another way of saying is that if you want to continue to run Windows 7, 8/8.1 you need processors earlier than the Skylake platform. Looks like we should see a demand of refurbished board and cpus.

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 14, 2020 and January 10, 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.

For enterprise customers, they have a 18 mths grace period to upgrade to modern hardware. 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 17, 2017.

Looks like this policy change is to make hardware manufacturers happy as PC sales have been declining these few years.

So, will you stick to your current setup or will you upgrade both OS and PC at the same time. So all PCs will have to run Windows 10 to function properly. Well, goodbye to old PCs and OS and Hello whatever Lake + Win 10.