Microsoft Disables Windows Updates

When it comes to supporting legacy operating systems on new hardware, Microsoft has just unleashed the mother of all nuclear options. We already knew that Microsoft and its hardware partners — namely Intel and AMD — will not provide official support for the newest generation of PC processors on operating systems released prior to Windows 10.

“To achieve the highest confidence in the performance of our AMD Ryzen desktop processors, AMD validated them across two different OS generations, Windows 7 and 10,” said AMD with respect to Ryzen support. “However, only support and drivers for Windows 10 will be provided in AMD Ryzen desktop processor production parts.” Intel’s stance on the matter pretty much mirrors AMD’s comments.

Microsoft is taking the drastic step of shutting down ALL access to Windows Update for Ryzen and Kaby Lake processors running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. This isn’t a matter of just missing out on driver updates to fully support the latest generation of processors on older operating systems — we’re talking about a complete blackout of Windows Update on all fronts.