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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: 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)?