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Microsoft has quietly killed off Windows 7 support for older Intel PCs.
If your PC doesn't run Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2, you apparently won't be getting any more Win7 patches. At least, that's what I infer from some clandestine Knowledge Base documentation changes made in the past few days.
Even though Microsoft says it's supporting Win7 until January 14, 2020, if you have an older machine — including any Pentium III — you've been blocked, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Here's how it happened. Back in March, the Win7 Monthly Rollup, KB 4088875, included a warning about SSE2 problems:
A Stop error occurs on computers that don't support Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2 (SSE2).
I talked about the bugs in KB 4088875 — one of the buggiest Win7 patches in recent memory — shortly after it was released. At the time, the KB article said:
Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.
[...] To recap: Up until June 15, Microsoft was promising that it would fix the bug that prevented Win7 Monthly Rollups and Security-only updates from installing on older pre-SSE2 machines. After June 15, Microsoft wrote off the pre-SSE2 population, without notice or fanfare, and retroactively changed the documentation to cover its tracks.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @09:54AM (8 children)
I am no fan of Microsoft, but I think many can agree that the boat anchor of legacy hardware and software support has held Microsoft back.
We can't blame backwards compatibility for Microsoft's shitty business practices, disastrous mergers/acquisitions and horrible design decisions. But it certainly has hurt the quality of its software products.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @10:21AM
We are talking about Windows 7, the most stable, least broken OS Microsoft has ever released. It's not like they need to make it even better in a time where they would really like people to give up on Windows 7 and upgrade to the POS that is Windows 10.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @10:24AM
Embrace, extend, extinguish... can you imagine how fast Microsoft could have moved on this innovation path if only it haven't had to support legacy hardware and software?
(Bold as it may be, one possible outcome could be global extinction - imagine a Microsoft dropping support for XP and forcing the transition to Vista for submarines [mspoweruser.com]. Maybe even submarines in the cloud?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @10:48AM (3 children)
Yeah, backward compatibility has truly held back the recent development of... Windows 7?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:35PM (2 children)
Who said "recent development"? It certainly has had in impact on every version of Windows since '98. Would 7 have been even better, more stable, or had a longer support life if Microsoft had not had to look all the way back to supporting some parts of what '95 had to support? Would 10 have come out when it did if 7 wasn't dragging all of the ghosts of OSs, protocols and hardware past?
Apple, with all its failings, has been much better about freeing themselves from the chains of the past. And if/when they abandon Intel chips in their laptop or iMac lines, they will do it with a planned sunset of older hardware support in their OS.
As far as Linux goes, there are flavors that want to support stone age hardware, and some that that don't want to. And there is nothing wrong with that. Freeing the kernel maintainers from some of the past is good for the future of Linux.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:06PM
> Who said "recent development"?
The article is about them dropping support now, nine years after release.
> Apple, with all its failings, has been much better about freeing themselves from the chains of the past.
Personally, those "chains of the past" are literally the only thing keeping me on Windows (7, of course). From what i hear, Microsoft is breaking compatibility more and more with every major patch for Win10. Even putting aside the telemetry and loss of control of my own machine, that will be enough for me to completely abandon Windows in a few year's time. If I'm going to have to stop using the software I'm used to anyway, why wouldn't I switch to a superior OS (and I'm not talking just about technical superiority)?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:26PM
I disagree. Instead of holding them back, legacy support is what saved them from better, competing solutions. For example, O/S2.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:40PM (1 child)
>I am no fan of Microsoft, but
I am no fan of mafias, but.............
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:44PM
Have realized the Truth?
There is no fan . . .
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"