14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft released a surprising announcement in January, saying that all Windows 7 and 8.1 customers using computers with Skylake processors had until July 17, 2017 to upgrade to Windows 10. Otherwise, their PCs would have stopped receiving updates despite the fact that Windows 7 and 8.1 support ends in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
But in a new announcement released today, the company reveals that it has decided to push the date back for one year, so now support for Skylake processors on older Windows versions ends on July 17, 2018.
The company says that this decision comes following the feedback it has received since the original announcement in mid-January.
“A key part of this update was our commitment to continuing to lead with a customer-first approach. Since then we’ve received feedback from customers at various stages of planning and deployment of Windows 10,” Microsoft explains.
Critical updates to continue until EOS
Under the new policy, Windows 7 and 8.1 computers with Skylake processors will continue to receive all critical security updates even beyond the cut-off dates, in an attempt to keep these PCs protected against exploits supposed to take advantage of found vulnerabilities in the operating systems.
“This guidance is designed to help our customers purchase modern hardware with confidence, while continuing to manage their migrations to Windows 10. As our customers upgrade to Windows 10 on Skylake devices, they can benefit from the latest capabilities that come from modern hardware and software,” Microsoft says.
Without a doubt, moving to Windows 10 is not everyone’s cup of tea and a Lenovo executive has recently confirmed that customers are asking the company to get in touch with Microsoft and ask for an extension to the support cut-off for Skylake processors.
Many new PC buyers are buying new computers with Skylake chips but want to stick with Windows 7 or 8.1, so Microsoft forcing them to upgrade is clearly a drawback. Fortunately, Redmond had a change of mind on this, but eventually, everyone is still expected to upgrade to Windows 10.