Although Windows 7 is supposed to be supported until 2020, and Windows 8.1 will get updates until 2023, Microsoft is trying to push users migrating to Windows 10 by stopping updating those operating systems even if your hardware is new.
The news emerged earlier this week when users running an older version of Windows (Windows 7 and Windows 8.1) on new hardware received the following error message when Microsoft released the latest Patch Tuesday updates:
Unsupported Hardware
Your PC uses a processor that isn't supported on this version of Windows and you won't receive updates.
The surprise is that them message popped up even if users owned systems based on 7th-generation Intel processors (Kaby Lake - 2017) and AMD Ryzen (Bristol Ridge - 2017) chips.
The is the result of Microsoft's new support policy announced in early 2016:
Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support... Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming "Kaby Lake" silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming "8996" silicon, and AMD's upcoming "Bristol Ridge" silicon.
Initially, Microsoft meant to block the updates even in
PCs that use 6th-generation Intel processors (Skylake), which went on sale in late 2015. The company then changed the plan, and released a list of Skylake-based systems that will be fully supported. Systems that aren't on the supported list will lose access to updates for older Windows versions as of July 17, 2018.
On the other hand, devices built using pre-2015 chip designed, including Intel's Haswell and Broadwell families, are unaffected.