Windows 7/8.1 updates blocked on Kaby Lake and Ryzen PCs

[QuorTek]

They will run into problems with alot of governments as it is if they do so... but again if it is up against people using windows XP still.. then they should think about moving to something more new like win7 or later, but if just playing Counterstrike or whichever oldie solely there is no need to upgrade anything at all really.

[Corky34]

According to some enterprising tinkerers on AskWoody replacing wuaueng.dll with an older version seems to circumvent the block.

[Apex]

From the same link:

"So far the results are consistent with MrBrian’s. After installing the April Security only update KB4015546, no more updates can be installed via Windows Update or .msu files." - this doen't mean that they wont roll this update into the other 'security' updates but for now it looks like there is a work around...

[qasdfdsaq]

This should be good...

Agreed...


I wonder if anyone will ever get desperate enough to use the uber ghetto workaround of swapping your SSD/HDD into a Skylake PC, running updates, then swapping it back into a Kaby Lake/Ryzen machine. Or heck, remote/network booting it into a VM

[qasdfdsaq]

I wonder how long it will be before someone develops some code that mis-reports the processor type?

The technological capability and code is already there, just being used for other purposes at the moment.

[Kimbie]

Linux is much better than Windows & has long ago become user friendly. You just need to find the flavour (distribution) of Linux that is so you. I have some of my friends and relatives converted to Linux Mint and they love it. Runs way faster than Windows ever did, fewer issues & was easy to learn.

Admittedly I have not tried Linux as my daily driver for a while, but the games I play a lot World of Warcraft, World of Warships/Tanks games on Steam do not have native Linux clients, I know they should run under WINE, but I don't like to having to wait for the WINE team to fix the bugs when a game is patched as they had to do with Legion for WoW.

If I could get the same performance under Linux for my games and apps, then I would look at it, but when my Win10 install just works, takes less than 15 seconds to get me to the desktop and my games just work, it is a hard sell for me to move to Linux.

Kimbie

[kingpotnoodle]

I'm supportive of a warning that updates may not be tested or supported when that is the case, and I don't expect Microsoft to make changes to previous versions to support or optimse new CPU features...

BUT!

All security related fixes must be applicable to an OS still in mainstream support regardless of the CPU it runs on, otherwise this makes a mockery of anti-malware and security efforts. I hope Microsoft are not stupid enough to allow PCs to run with unpatched vulnerabilities...

If there are updates that are not tested or supported on the underlying hardware then there should still be an "Update Anyway" option and after acknowledging that you are OK with Microsoft support not caring if you break your Windows installation then the updates are applied.

[shaithis]

This does seem crazy and I expect a U turn.

[ik9000]

Hope so as I'm almost certainly buying Ryzen in the coming months, and it won't be running win10.

[Ozaron]

So, what happens if you shove -insert your Windows disk here- into an older system, run updates, and then put it back in the Ryzen / Kaby one?

[ik9000]

So, what happens if you shove -insert your Windows disk here- into an older system, run updates, and then put it back in the Ryzen / Kaby one?

You may end up with some of the wrong updates presumably, those that are hardware specific, but in terms of the OS I really don't know how many that would be.

[Corky34]

Leading on from the workaround of replacing wuaueng.dll with an older version it seems someone else dug a little deeper and found the two functions that checked for the CPU are IsCPUSupported(void) and IsDeviceServiceable(void), he's setup a GitHub page with the patched updates and further explanation if anyone is interested.

[scaryjim]

I can see a lawsuit coming in the US....they do like to sue over things after all and to be fair in this situation I can kind of understand a lawsuit. ...

Apparently missed this over the Easter weekend!

I can't see a lawsuit coming, because any lawyer worth their salt is going to do a quick google search, find Microsoft's comments from August last year explicitly stating that modern silicon like Kaby Lake/Ryzen would only be supported under Windows 10, and point out that as MS never promised to support Ryzen under Windows 7 or 8.1 you're stuffed. There is no case here.

If a company says "this combination of products is not supported" you're not going to win a lawsuit against them for not supporting that combination of products. You can protest, complain, raise awareness, boycott the company - all valid responses. But you can't sue.

Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean people have a right to it. In the mean time, if you want a genuine alternative to Windows, think about donating to contributing to ReactOS...

[Ttaskmaster]

A company is actively blocking updates, which lets be honest is to 'force you onto windows 10', during a time when it should really be fully supporting all available hardware that has driver support etc because the OS is still being maintained.

Kinda like how companies really should be releasing brand new albums on audiocassette, because my car still has a cassette player in the front and only a 6-disc CD changer in the back, yes?

[ik9000]

Well in fairness AMD said for a long time Ryzen would run win7, and IIRC they tested it during development to ensure it did. They suddenly pulled the plug shortly after release and we can only speculate as to why that was - but one thing's clear, win7 runs on it just fine. If it didn't MS wouldn't be so desperate to block it.

[Corky34]

I can't see a lawsuit coming, because any lawyer worth their salt is going to do a quick google search, find Microsoft's comments from August last year explicitly stating that modern silicon like Kaby Lake/Ryzen would only be supported under Windows 10, and point out that as MS never promised to support Ryzen under Windows 7 or 8.1 you're stuffed. There is no case here.

Wouldn't any lawyer worth their salt argue that a comment from August last year doesn't, and shouldn't, make the original contract nul and void, that taking steps to actively block certain hardware configurations is not the same as not supporting certain hardware configurations?