Microsoft backtracks on Windows 7 support deadline

Microsoft today retreated from an earlier retirement date for Windows 7 and 8.1 support on newer hardware, saying that it would now support those OSes on PCs running Intel's Skylake silicon until July 2018.

The decision is a partial rollback of a January announcement that Microsoft called a "clarification" of its support policy. Under the January plan, Microsoft would have ended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on July 17, 2017, if the operating systems were powering machines equipped with its now-current Skylake processor family.

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At the time, Microsoft credited the decision to Windows 7's age and the hassle that Microsoft and OEMs would have to go through to ensure the 2009 operating system runs on Intel's latest architecture.

"As partners make customizations to legacy device drivers, services, and firmware settings, customers are likely to see regressions with Windows 7 ongoing servicing," Terry Myerson, Microsoft's top Windows and devices executive, said in a Jan. 15 blog post.

Myerson's solution: Shorten support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on the newest PCs by at least 30 months, and decree that, going forward, next-generation processors would require the "latest Windows platform at that time for support." In other words, Windows 10.

The move was the first time Microsoft had mandated a broad restriction on what edition of Windows customers could run on which hardware. Some analysts saw it as yet another tactic in Microsoft's strategy to coerce customers into adopting Windows 10.

On Friday, Microsoft backpedaled.

Support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on certain Skylake PCs will now continue until July 17, 2018, a one-year extension from the original deadline. After that date, Microsoft and its computer-making partners will not guarantee that they will revise device drivers to support those editions of Windows on newer hardware.

The Redmond, Wash. company also retreated from another component of the earlier support policy: Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 Skylake PCs will receive all critical security updates through their respective January 2020 and January 2023 retirement dates. Two months ago, Microsoft had been much more vague about what it would patch after the done-with-support date, saying only that it would address "the most critical ... security updates."

The new criteria will almost certainly mean that all vulnerabilities rated "critical," one of the four labels Microsoft assigns to flaws, will be patched.

Support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on Skylake PCs is predicated on the customer owning a system on this list of eligible hardware.

Microsoft acknowledged that its change of mind had been driven by complaints from the firm's most important customers.