If you are still on Windows 7 and plan on upgrading your hardware to either Intel “Kaby Lake” or AMD “Zen” in 2017 be prepared to upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft is making good on their warning from earlier this year that they will not provide support to users of upcoming processors on older Windows operating systems. When Intel’s 7th Generation Core “Kaby Lake” processors and AMD’s “Summer Ridge” and “Bristol Ridge” processors launch they will only receive support from Microsoft on the Windows 10 operating system.
What does that mean for you? Without platform support your Windows installation will not utilize many of the CPU features that are being introduced with “Kaby Lake” and “Zen” and will more than likely run in compatibility mode. This more or less cuts off PC enthusiasts from using older Windows versions on new hardware. Non-Microsoft operating systems such as the latest Linux distributions and OS X are fully compatible with the upcoming chips.
