PCA Forums

Not sure where this is going, but it would suck for those that still use older hardware.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3209705/ ... -cpus.html

No Windows 10 Creators Update for you, Microsoft says—at least, not if you happen to be the unlucky owner of certain older Atom-based Windows devices, and other aging models in the future. After stories arose of failed attempts to upgrade such hardware to the Creators Update, Microsoft confirmed late Wednesday that any hardware device that falls out of the manufacturer’s support cycle may be ineligible for future Windows 10 updates.

I think MS PR department is never clear on what the intent is with statements like this. Yeah most of it has to do with the Atom cpu, but the statement there makes it sound like any other aging models in the future.

Sure, they are gonna hedge their bets in case they implement functions that older hardware cant support without having to invest a assload of time to make it function somehow. Lets face it, this will have minimal impact in most peoples day to day. Atoms are very low feature CPU's, and especially as OS's and software implement more robust security systems, they start choking and cant cope, and this is just 1 example. Even so they will still get security updates for another 5 years. If you depend on 15 year old CPU's and you have no upgrade plans in place at that time, that's just shitty planning.

Well let's be fair, these are VERY underpowered Atom CPUs. Also, you'll still get security updates because every version of Windows 10 gets 18 months of extended support. You just won't be on the latest version.

I know about the Atom, but I was more concerned with the bold statement: Microsoft confirmed late Wednesday that any hardware device that falls out of the manufacturer’s support cycle may be ineligible for future Windows 10 updates. I know there is a "may" in there, but what about older CPU's like a quad core. Those are about 10 years old now.

Well even if a 10 year old Core 2 Duo was sidelined tomorrow, it would just not be eligible for the next major upgrade (what we used to call service packs) and it would continue to get security updates for 18 months.

Look, it feels shitty because we in the Windows world are used to perpetual hardware support, but no one else does this. Apple drops older hardware all the time in new MacOS releases. Same for iOS and Android.

From a practical perspective it costs a lot of time and money to make a new OS release support older hardware.