Microsoft recently went back on its statement from January regarding the support for Windows 7 and 8.1-powered Intel Skylake PCs.
The initial announcement was that beginning July 17, 2017, all Skylake PCs will stop receiving full support for Windows 7 and 8.1. Now, Microsoft extended the time frame by a year.
"We've received feedback from customers at various stages of planning and deployment of Windows 10," says Jeremy Korst, Windows Marketing general manager.
Microsoft claimed that the decision to withdraw support for Windows 7 and 8.1 in 2017 was based on the painstaking process of adapting its old operating systems to Intel's revolutionary architecture.
This was the first time when Microsoft became demanding, virtually forcing newer hardware to come packed with the latest OS from the company. Experts from the tech world speculated that the move is a tactic through which Microsoft aims to push out more copies of Windows 10.
The recent statement shows that certain Skylake PCs running Windows 7 and 8.1 will get support until July 17, 2018. This means that after this date, newer hardware will stop getting updated drivers for the two OSs.
Take a look at the full list of supported devices on Microsoft's official site.
Other positive news are in store. Skylake systems that run Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will get all critical security updates until they reach their retirement dates. Windows 7 "retires" on Jan. 14, 2020, while Windows 8.1 has until Jan. 10, 2023.
Korst explains why his company decided to prolong the support period.
"We've received feedback from customers at various stages of planning and deployment of Windows 10," he notes. Korst goes on to add that by upgrading a Skylake machine to Windows 10, customers will truly feel the synergy of modern hardware and software.
Microsoft got a lot of backup from enterprise partners and clients, and experts agree that Lenovo's contribution was crucial to the decision.
Lenovo's North America ThinkPad product manager, Adrienne Mueller, expressed a firm standpoint against Microsoft's deadline of July 2017.
"The thought here is that Microsoft is really just pushing customers to move to Windows 10," Mueller says.
A part of Microsoft's plans to deploy its latest OS to Skylake PCs remains unchanged, however: shortly put, post-Skylake chipsets will sport exclusive Windows 10 support.
