Microsoft has reneged on its policy of ending support for Intel’s Skylake range of processors for its older operating systems, which was set to end on 17th July, 2018. From Thursday (11th August), the Redmond company will extend its Skylake support to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 Enterprise users, effective immediately and lasting until 2020 and 2023, respectively. As part of its amendment to its Silicon Support policy, Microsoft is also extending its support period for Windows 7 and 8.1, including all security updates for the two operating systems. The change comes following feedback from enterprise customers.
The list of changes for enterprise customers using Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 as part of the policy revision are as follows:
- Today Windows 7 is in extended support and support will end for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020, and support for Windows 8.1 will end January 10, 2023.
- 6th Gen Intel Core devices on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be supported with all applicable security updates until the end of support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
- This change is made possible through the strong partnership with our OEM partners and Intel who will be performing security update validation testing and upgrade testing for 6th Gen Intel Core systems running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 through the end of support dates.
- As previously communicated earlier this year, future silicon platforms including Intel’s upcoming 7th Gen Intel Core (Kaby Lake) processor family and AMD’s 7th generation processors (e.g. Bristol Ridge) will only be supported on Windows 10, and all future silicon releases will require the latest release of Windows 10.
