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Microsoft Windows 10 To Run Exclusively On Silicon Chipsets, Says Company Exec

By Val Powell
Published on: 18:14 PST, Jan 19, 2016

Windows 10, the latest of the Microsoft’s PC operating systems, continues to have a slow adoption rate among computer users, having only made it to 10 percent of the market pie in January.

However, the company is definitely trying its best to encourage more users to make the upgrade.

A new report says the Redmond-based company has taken its most drastic steps ever in order to promote its Windows 10 platform.

According to a blog post penned by Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for Windows and Devices Group, Terry Myerson, upcoming silicon generations would be designed to run solely on Microsoft Windows 10, and not any previous version.

The reason for this, as mentioned in the blog, is for the company to focus on the “integration between Windows and the silicon,” although it made sure that the new silicon would maintain reliability and compatibility with previous versions of platform and silicon.

Furthermore, the post specified which upcoming chips would support only Windows 10, such as Intel’s “Kaby Lake,” Qualcomm’s “8996” silicon, and AMD’s “Bristol Ridge.”

Another report also pointed out that the contents of the blog post mean that Microsoft wants to aggressively push the transition from 32-bit architecture to 64-bit.

In addition, Myerson said that Windows 7 was designed nearly 10 years ago, and that the “legacy” code that has been running in most PCs around the world is too burdensome to be continuously supported.

He also pointed out that it is difficult to keep all the older Windows versions up to date in upcoming silicon chip versions.

This means that people and companies who are planning to purchase computers today running on Windows 7 or 8.1 would still lose support sometime in the future. So instead of upgrading a user’s current computer to Microsoft Windows 10, it would be better to wait until computer manufacturers release new products with next-gen silicon chips that only support Windows 10.

Fortunately, this change will not take place anytime soon. The report stated that, until July 17, 2017, Intel’s Skylake chips will continue to support Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. However, beyond that, the company will release only the most vital updates for both versions.

As a result, the company highly recommends that everyone make the upgrade in the next 18 months if they do not want to experience security and performance issues brought about by the lack of updates.

Poor performance leads to dissatisfied users, and Microsoft does not want that. For many years, it has battled a losing war against Apple’s OS X, which many tech experts believe to be superior in terms of performance.

However, Windows experts pointed out that Microsoft Windows 10 is a move in the right direction for the company, and the more people use it, the more they can enjoy its advantages over the older versions.

Aside from performance, security will also be improved, just like how computers running on Intel’s Skylake chip and Windows 10 are doing.

“Matching the latest [Windows] with the latest silicon is a way for the entire PC ecosystem to guarantee the best possible performance moving forward,” said TECHnalysis Research president Bob O’Donnell in a report.

For users of older computers and PCs, this update should not be a threat just yet. That’s because Microsoft will still support Windows 7 and 8.1 platforms on older computers until January 14, 2020.

While Myerson said that upgrading to Microsoft Windows 10 is the best move for PC users, he also made it clear that Windows 8.1 runs on most devices that can be purchased today and will receive support until January 10, 2023.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]

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