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Windows 10 support cut for some Intel chips

by on19 July 2017


Clover Trail Atom processors blocked


While most people expected that Windows 10 would last a while, it appears that some Intel users will not get feature updates.

ZDNet's Ed Bott has written that systems built around Intel's Clover Trail Atom processors are blocked from installing Windows 10 Version 1703, known as the Creators Update.

For those with the memory of goldfish, Intel's Clover Trail Atom processors are generally low-cost, low-power machines released between 2012 and 2015. Most of the devices that the chips ended up inside would have broken, or ended up in the bottom of the wardrobe. However if you do try to install Windows 10 on the machine you will get the message that "the chip is no longer supported on this PC".

Clover Trail machines were shipped with Windows 8 or 8.1. If their owners had kept Windows 8.1, they'd be eligible for the regular 5+5 support policy, with security updates ceasing on October 1, 2023. But the machines were deemed compatible with Windows 10 and hence eligible for the free upgrade that Microsoft offered to Windows 8.1 users for the first year of Windows 10's release.

What is starting to look like happening is that rather than Windows 10 lasting on your machine forever, Vole is tying its software upgrades to hardware improvements. So your current computer might be able to run future versions of Windows 10, but Vole will not let you upgrade it until you get a better chip.

Each Windows 10 update will receive security fixes for just 18 months. Version 1607, the latest that these Clover Trail machines can install, will drop out of support in early 2018. After that date, they'll cease to receive any patches at all.

The following Intel Clover Trail processors are currently not supported on Windows 10 Creators Update: Atom Z2760, Atom Z2520, Atom Z2560 and Atom Z2580.

However the issue is not because of an evil pact between Vole and the hardware industry. Clover Trail’s GPU was a non-Intel GPU designed by Imagination Technologies which has made driver development and support a nightmare.

Later Atom processors used Intel's own GPU designs, a move that should simplify their ongoing support.

Last modified on 19 July 2017
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