Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are still widely used by consumers and businesses, so it was surprising when Microsoft announced earlier this year that the latest Intel Skylake processors and chipsets would only be supported by Windows 10 after July 2017. Microsoft also provided a list of supported Skylake devices.
This decision caught many off guard because Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are still in the extended support phase (beyond 2017), which means they continue to receive security updates even though the operating system’s features remain unchanged. Due to the lack of support, some patches incompatible with Skylake systems or causing issues and instability would be excluded from security updates after July 2017.
The aforementioned status quo has recently changed with the extension of full support for Intel Skylake systems on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 until July 2018. Another year to allow businesses to manage the machine renewal process. Microsoft confirmed this in a post on the Technet blog.
To provide greater flexibility for customers with longer Windows 10 implementation timelines, the support period for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices with Intel Skylake will be extended by one year: from July 17, 2017, to July 17, 2018.
Furthermore, after July 2018, all critical security updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will be directed to Skylake systems until the end of extended support for Windows 7, January 14, 2020, and Windows 8.1, January 10, 2023.
Extended support and full support, therefore, without excluding any patches related to critical security updates for the two versions of Windows. This measure, according to Microsoft’s goals, was introduced to: «help our customers buy current hardware with confidence while continuing to manage the migration to Windows 10.»
