According to a news from Microsoft they are blocking Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 updates if you’re running a Ryzen, Bristol Ridge or Kaby Lake based system. During the past weeks we’ve read several news about Windows 7 supporting Ryzen and Kaby Lake and this is clearly linked to Microsoft itself. The company is refusing to support these new CPUs on any OS other than Windows 10.


This new policy doesn't mean that Windows 7 and 8.1 are no longer supported in general. The two OS will continue to get updates up to January 14th 2020 and January 10th 2023, respectively. Only in the case of Ryzen, Bristol Ridge and Kaby Lake based systems updates are not being rolled out anymore. Should you still run Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and want to use the latest AMD high-end and Intel mainstream CPUs, then Microsoft has now terminated the support.

If you’re going to use one of the two mentioned operating systems in combination with the mentioned CPUs and try to get updates, the following message will show up: "Your PC uses a processor that isn’t supported on this version of Windows". Furthermore Windows will show you all the possible symptoms and causes. In other words Microsoft wants to push you to use Windows 10 by blocking all the updates on the other OS in combination with latest hardware.

Symptoms

• When you try to scan or download updates through Windows Update, you receive the following error message:
• Unsupported Hardware
• Your PC uses a processor that isn’t supported on this version of Windows and you won’t receive updates.
• Additionally, you may see an error message on the Windows Update window that resembles the following:
• Windows could not search for new updates
• An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer.
• Error(s) found:
• Code 80240037 Windows Update encountered an unknown error.

CauseThis error occurs because new processor generations require the latest Windows version for support. For example, Windows 10 is the only Windows version that is supported on the following processor generations:

• Intel seventh (7th)-generation processors
• AMD Bristol Ridge
• Qualcomm 8996"

Because of how this support policy is implemented, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 devices that have a seventh generation or a later generation processor may no longer be able to scan or download updates through Windows Update or Microsoft Update.We recommend that you upgrade Windows 8.1-based and Window 7-based computers to Windows 10 if those computers have a processor that is from any of the following generations:

• Intel seventh (7th)-generation "Intel Core" processor or a later generation
• AMD seventh (7th)-generation (“Bristol Ridge") processor or a later generation
• Qualcomm 8996" processor or a later generation

Source: OC3D