Windows 7 drops support for Pentium III

Bad news for the small number of people running Windows 7 on a Pentium III or older, these systems are no longer getting security updates from Microsoft. The software giant promised extended support until January 14, 2020 but now it seems that it will not fix a bug that popped up some time ago.

After promising a resolution in a future release, Microsoft later backtracked and changed the language of its KB articles to include the following message "Upgrade your machines with a processor that supports SSE2 or virtualize those machines."

So instead of providing a fix, Microsoft is unilaterally cutting of Windows 7 support 1.5 years before the official deadline.

To recap: Up until June 15, Microsoft was promising that it would fix the bug that prevented Win7 Monthly Rollups and Security-only updates from installing on older pre-SSE2 machines. After June 15, Microsoft wrote off the pre-SSE2 population, without notice or fanfare, and retroactively changed the documentation to cover its tracks.

Does it really matter? I guess not considering the last Pentium III chips were sold in 2002. The number of machines still in operation, and running Windows 7, is bound to be very low.

Via: ComputerWorld