In line with its ongoing efforts to push Windows 10 down users' throats, Microsoft revealed that the new Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Zen chips are supported only by Windows 10.
"As new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support," a Microsoft spokeswoman told PC World. "This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon.""
Intel and AMD have no intentions to oppose Microsoft's plans. In fact, both companies have confirmed that they won't be releasing system drivers for their new processors on any Windows version older than Windows 10.
What this means is that older Windows versions will not be updated to take advantage of newer processors' capabilities and will not receive bug fixes and security updates. In other words, you'll be able to install Windows 7 and 8 on a PC powered by Kaby Lake CPU but you'll have to withstand degraded performance, glitches and security vulnerabilities. That, or switch to Linux or Mac if you can't stomach Windows 10.
