Microsoft Begins to Block Updates for New Hardware on Older Windows Versions

The day that some PC fans have dreaded is finally here. If you have a modern and new processor from Intel or AMD inside your PC and you are running a version of Windows other than Windows 10, you may have already seen the message from Microsoft pictured below. Microsoft has begun to deny users of PCs on Windows 7 or 8.1 security updates if their hardware has a modern processor inside such as an Intel Kaby Lake or an AMD Ryzen.

Microsoft first said that it would do this last fall and then never really stepped up and rolled the maligned program out. That roll out has now happened. It won’t make anyone who has spent money on a new processor recently happy to find out that they are being forced to buy a new version of Windows as well, but there are some reasons for this according to HotHardware.

The latest AMD and Intel processors have architectural benefits that the older versions of Windows don’t support. Rather than spend resources making these older versions of Windows work with the new processors, Microsoft wants to focus solely on Windows 10. Of course, there is the added benefit for Microsoft that this might finally force some PC gamers and enthusiasts to finally buy Windows 10, something more than a few Widnows 7 fans have been unwilling to do.

The big rub for end users who purchased these new processors and planned to continue to use their Windows 7 or 8.1 operating systems is that Microsoft has promised mainstream support for Windows 8.1 through January 2018. Essentially this means Microsoft is backtracking on that mainstream support promise if you have new hardware that wasn’t released when the promise was made.