Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Washington, USA: American tech giant Microsoft has threatened to withhold Windows 11 updates and potentially even the security updates for users who have an old CPU.
According to The Verge, Microsoft had earlier said that it won't actually block users from installing Windows 11 on a PC with an older CPU, but now the company has told the outlet that unsupported PCs won't be entitled to receive Windows Updates and driver updates. It's quite possible this is just a cover up measure on Microsoft's part. It's hard to imagine that Microsoft wouldn't issue critical security patches, when they've often extended support and offered the occasional free patch even after it's shelved an operating system for good.
This could be a measure to discourage people from thinking that Microsoft would offer a warranty and technical support for every possible PC configuration under the sun, hence avoiding potential legal headaches down the road. It's better to underpromise and overdeliver.
It's also possible Microsoft genuinely does mean to withhold patches at some point in the future, potentially even at launch. Microsoft declined to clarify things further at this time, which suggests the company's perfectly happy for users to assume this is a genuine threat.
It's not just security updates at stake, by the way. If a user is unwilling or unable to replace their older-than-Intel 8th-Gen-CPU, Windows 11 could theoretically be an operating system where that user would go back to the days of manually downloading driver updates for all hardware, something people haven't needed to think about for years.
Feature updates are probably less of a big deal. If you're the kind of person who would install a Windows 11 ISO on your computer to begin with, you can probably download a newer ISO the next time there's a major Windows update that you want, and do an in-place-install.
The company seemingly wants to push Windows users to buy a new PC, whether they need one or not. Earlier, the company told The Verge about a loophole that could placate some of the company's vocal power users who don't want to give up their old hardware.
But if that loophole gets in the way of Microsoft's plans, the company is reserving the right to make it far less attractive.
