Support for Windows on New Processors Updated

Full support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on computers with new processors will run through July 2018, rather than July 2017 as initially planned, and Microsoft may provide critical security patches for those OSs after that date. The announcement gives organizations more time to run Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on newer PCs before migrating them to Windows 10 and could be particularly important for organizations with line-of-business applications that are not supported on Windows 10. Organizations remaining on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will have to evaluate hardware purchases carefully to ensure processor compatibility with older OS versions.

Skylake Support Through July 2018

In Jan. 2016, Terry Myerson, executive vice president, Windows and Devices Group, announced that for recent hardware such as the Intel Skylake processor, Microsoft will only support Windows 7 and 8.1 on select devices from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and NEC. At that time, Microsoft said that after July 17, 2017, it would only address the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates for these configurations, and such updates will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7 or 8.1 platform on other devices.”