I’m planning to build a new computer in November and I was not looking forward to trying to install Windows 7 on it considering all the obstacles, but if this turns out to be true, that would be a miracle. Thanks for reporting this.

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PerthMike

Is it really worth it for a matter of xx months on W7 until Jan 2020..then what?

I don’t think MS will call off the patching dogs, they are trying to trick, run down W7 users by hook or by crook for their market-share stats. And the patching woes continue..<sigh>

Intel support forum had a couple questions about this with people wanting to upgrade. The support tech replied said neither Microsoft or Intel has any plans to support newer chips with Windows 7 as per their agreements to move forward with Win 10 support. The support person said this was written in stone and would not change. Probably some wishful thinking on someone’s part, but given Win 7 support ends Jan. 2020 why would Intel or Microsoft change their minds at this stage?

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RTEsysadmin

Its good news, but not big news. Out of 150 client computers 2 years ago, every one a Win7 install, 2 have opted to buy (or should I say rent) Win10. I used to help my clients buy new PCs. We were buying about 35 new ones each year. I have not bought a new one in more than a year now. We are focusing on extending the life of our existing Win7 computers. For example, I have replaced over 20 hard drives as preventative maintenance so far this year.

I need to add here that we suspended all Microsoft updating May 2017. Adopted Chrome as our standard, Uninstalled Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Java, and run BitDefender antivirus +. And please note that these are non-enterprise installations.

The only value to this new offer, would be for clients who need to replace their PCs and still continue to refuse Win10. By my assessment, most of my clients have PCs in good enough shape to run another 5 years.

The big impact of this will be in the enterprise scene. There are tens of thousands of them that will not accept Win10 and will do something like we have done. This will enable them to continue that strategy for a long time to come.

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lmacri, Kirsty, SueW, BobbyB, wdburt1, Microfix

So MS does not want me to install W7 on any box I build. I have a very simple solution, install Linux on it. Intel or AMD gets money but MS does not and I have a box. MS loses as I will not use W10.

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bruce.chaser, Bill C., Ascaris, Cybertooth

lurks about, that’s fine for a client who can/will use Linux. However, in my experience, those are few and far between. I have shown, at least for my kind of client, that using Win7 in its end state as I have defined it, is a perfectly viable platform.

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Microfix

Not falling for this one. One reason…
CLOUD FIRST – WaaS (W10). Caesar said so.

I can not see Intel, AMD or any component manufacturer bucking Microsoft on this. Microsoft is the T-Rex in this alliance and the others are mere scavengers.

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Microfix

How about Spectre/Meltdown?

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AlexEiffel

The big open question is whether Microsoft plans to call off the patching dogs and let Win7 security patches go through on these updated chips.

from Woody’s article.
The pessimist in me says very probably not! M$ seems to have the attitude “Win 7 must Die” not really what I want nor many around here but then again when do they ever listen to us? but we live in hope maybe they may call a cease fire in their war of attrition on us devotees of Win 7.

The trick is, in addition to allowing W7 updates, that all motherboard chips have W7 drivers. Not just for the chipset and the CPU built in graphics, but also for all MB peripheral chips like USB, LAN, audio, etc.

Hopefully it will also support W8.1, fingers crossed. I’m dreading replacing a couple of older friends’ 7 year old W7 PC’s with new ones running W10.

I don’t think this is a rumor anymore.

On the Gigabyte website, for example, if you choose to view the motherboards with the H310 chipset, you will see a number of “2.0” motherboards. For example :

H310M DS2V 2.0 : https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/H310M-DS2V-20-rev-10#kf

There is also the original H310M DS2V (rev 1.0) :
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/H310M-DS2V-rev-10#kf

If you attempt to download drivers for the original motherboard, you will only see Windows 10 drivers available. But for the 2.0 motherboard, Windows 7 drivers, including chipset, LAN, audio and USB 3 drivers (but apparently not the CPU graphics drivers) are all available. So it is evident that these new 2.0 motherboards do support running Windows 7, using a supported discrete graphics card.

Of course, whether we can actually get them is another matter altogether.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 2 days ago by  James Bond 007. Reason: Addition

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lmacri

James Bond 007 wrote:

I don’t think this is a rumor anymore. On the Gigabyte website, for example, if you choose to view the motherboards with the H310 chipset, you will see a number of “2.0” motherboards. For example : H310M DS2V 2.0 : https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/H310M-DS2V-20-rev-10#kf There is also the original H310M DS2V (rev 1.0) : https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/H310M-DS2V-rev-10#kf If you attempt to download drivers for the original motherboard, you will only see Windows 10 drivers available. But for the 2.0 motherboard, Windows 7 drivers, including chipset, LAN, audio and USB 3 drivers (but apparently not the CPU graphics drivers) are all available. So it is evident that these new 2.0 motherboards do support running Windows 7, using a supported discrete graphics card. Of course, whether we can actually get them is another matter altogether.

Interesting. I looked at your  links. I downloaded the the BIOS flash utilities for the older Gigabyte H310M DS2V (rev. 1.0) motherboard, and for the newer Gigabyte H310M DS2V 2.0 (rev. 1.0) motherboard.

The older motherboard version only supports Windows 10.

The newer motherboard version supports both Windows 7 and Windows 10, yet apparently not Windows 8.1.

So, what is going on? First, the embedded microcode shows that that that that there are new CPUIDs. All CPUID codes are known. Second, the newer motherboard’s BIOS actually adds some older CPUIDs. Third, the newer motherboard’s BIOS actually reverts some drivers to earlier versions which are compatible with Windows 7.

You all read in between the lines, in terms of what you perceive to be Gigabyte’s marketing strategy. Personally, I think that Gigabyte realizes that Windows 7 isn’t going do die anytime soon.

Below, I list the details of the older motherboard’s latest BIOS. I then list the details of the newer motherboard’s BIOS. In the following lists, I highlighted newer versions of drivers and CPU microcode in BOLD text, and I highlighted drivers which have been reverted older driver versions (for Windows 7 compatibility) in ITALIC text.

For the newer version motherboard which uses the same chipset, I additionally highlighted in ITALIC text, older CPU microcode files which were added within the newer motherboard’s BIOS.

Motherboard Model: H310M DS2V (rev. 1.0)
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Lastest Available BIOS Download: mb_bios_h310m-ds2v_f5.zip
BIOS file name: 310MDS2V.F5
BIOS platform: AMI Aptio V
BIOS Version: F5
BIOS Notes: Improve CPU compatibility
First Release BIOS Date: 2018-03-05
Latest Version BIOS Date: 2018-07-31
Driver versions in BIOS file:
1 – Disk Controller
EFI IRST RAID for SATA     – 16.5.0.3487
OROM IRST RAID for SATA    – 16.5.0.3487
EFI AMI NVMe Driver present
2 – Video OnBoard
EFI GOP Driver SKL-CFL     – 9.0.1079
3 – Network
OROM Intel Boot Agent CL   – 0.1.13
EFI Realtek UNDI           – 2.042
OROM Realtek Boot Agent GE – 2.66
Extracted CPU microcodes:
cpu906EA_plat22_ver00000096_2018-05-02_PRD_730E6662.bin
cpu906EB_plat02_ver0000008E_2018-03-24_PRD_26138472.bin
cpu906EC_plat22_ver00000084_2018-02-19_PRD_F3514131.bin

Motherboard Model: H310M DS2V 2.0 (rev. 1.0)
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Lastest Available BIOS Download: mb_bios_h310m-ds2v-2.0_f1.zip
BIOS file name: 310DS2V2.F1
BIOS platform: AMI Aptio V
BIOS Version: F1
BIOS Notes: First Release
First Release BIOS Date: 2018-07-31
Latest Version BIOS Date: 2018-07-31
Driver versions in BIOS file:
1 – Disk Controller
EFI IRST RAID for SATA     – 16.5.0.3492
     OROM IRST RAID for SATA    – 16.5.0.3492
EFI AMI NVMe Driver present
2 – Video OnBoard
EFI GOP Driver SKL-CFL     – 9.0.1080
3 – Network
OROM Intel Boot Agent CL   – 0.1.10
     EFI Realtek UNDI           – 2.034
     OROM Realtek Boot Agent GE – 2.61
Extracted CPU microcodes:
!New_cpu906EC_plat22_ver00000096_2018-05-08_PRD_9EF46607.bin
cpu906EA_plat36_ver000000C2_2017-11-16_PRD_328B43AF.bin
cpu506E8_plat22_ver00000034_2016-07-10_PRD_57D53E7A.bin
cpu906E9_plat2A_ver00000084_2018-01-21_PRD_A1B7222B.bin **
cpu906EA_plat22_ver00000096_2018-05-02_PRD_730E6662.bin
cpu906EB_plat02_ver0000008E_2018-03-24_PRD_26138472.bin

** This Meltdown and Spectre mitigating microcode, dated 2018-01-21 and for this given CPU model, can result in data loss.

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RTEsysadmin, columbia2011, Karlston, Canadian Tech

Bobby B, what you may be seeing is the beginning of a tempered backoff from MS. Intel did this because of the huge number of important enterprise customers they have that are demanding this. MS has the same customers. We have seen this before. I would not be surprised to see MS make some announcements to cool the angry enterprise heads who are rejecting Win10. In the end, IF they have any smarts left, MS is going to have to keep those customers from going elsewhere. Even if they stay with Win7, MS can still make money from some of them.

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BobbyB, PerthMike, Kirsty

Microfix, I have not installed any patches or even BIOS updates to deal with this problem. Woody’s position on this is its all about the browser. I have opted to ignore this “issue” and move instead to the Chrome browser which deals with it, albeit with some performance hit, but I have not been able to measure that.

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Microfix

James, it will be interesting to see if Dell and others offer these systems. I suspect they are waiting for MS. But, I also suspect that they are the folks who actually pressured Intel into doing this.

Canadian Tech wrote:

…I need to add here that we suspended all Microsoft updating May 2017. Adopted Chrome as our standard, Uninstalled Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Java, and run BitDefender antivirus +. And please note that these are non-enterprise installations…

Hi Canadian Tech:

Are your instructions in the MS Answers thread Windows Update in 2018 for creating a “final-state Windows 7 installation” the same Win 7 SP1 instructions referenced in this thread by Microfix and Elly?
——-
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Norton Security v22.15.0.88

Imacri, I had same question.  Microfix or Elly, can you shed light on the CT recommendation?  Is it the link Imacri posted; or is it just an accumulation of things? 
It does seem at CT has been periodically updating that post that Imacri linked for us: edited 8 times from April to July of this year.

OscarCP wrote:

How about Spectre/Meltdown?

Actually, this might be the point of the new Gigabyte motherboard with its internal reversions to lower versions of BIOS networking drivers for compatibility with Windows 7, and with these four microcodes which prevent Meltdown/Spectre:

!New_cpu906EC_plat22_ver00000096_2018-05-08_PRD_9EF46607.bin
cpu906E9_plat2A_ver00000084_2018-01-21_PRD_A1B7222B.bin
cpu906EA_plat22_ver00000096_2018-05-02_PRD_730E6662.bin
cpu906EB_plat02_ver0000008E_2018-03-24_PRD_26138472.bin

In other words, a release of a newer version of a motherboard which now is additionally compatible with Windows 7 instead of only being compatible with Windows 10, and which has the the above four microcodes to prevent Meltdown/Spectre on these four Coffee Lake CPUs. Note that the raid and video drivers in BIOS were also updated, probably for the same reason.

Perhaps we might soon see new “refresh” version of the 906EC CPU? The following two forum threads talk about this, about Meltdown/Spectre, and possibly about Intel wanting to stick it to AMD’s Ryzen. See:

https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-intel-motherboards/1640168-asus-z370-motherboard-series-official-support-thread-220.html

At the top of the page in the above link, there is a link to Intel’s July 13, 2018 Microcode Revision Guidance PDF document. The link is working again, yet just like the March 6, 2018 Microcode Revision Guidance document, the latest PDF has no mention of the 906EC CPU. Only the older flavors of the 906E(x) CPUs are mentioned. This is interesting since MSI also has BIOS updates with May 2018 906EC microcode to “Support New Generation CPU”, as seen in the following link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/8ylcms/z370_to_support_the_new_generation_of_cpus/

• This reply was modified 1 week, 1 day ago by  GoneToPlaid. Reason: added more info
• This reply was modified 1 week, 1 day ago by  GoneToPlaid.

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Elly

Ha, I knew there was life in the old girl yet.

This is just the news I was hoping for. Hope Microsoft don’t throw a tantrum but accept what is inevitable. January 2020 is not an acceptable cut-off date given the amount of corporate customers still on Windows 7.

In our office, we just refreshed our PC fleet with, what was then, the last Windows 7-supported small form factor model from Dell. Our staff are almost all older-generation people (35-70) who don’t deal well with change, and who love the Windows 7 stability and interface. For us, a 6-monthly (or even 18-monthly) upgrade cycle would be a nightmare, especially given the legacy and special-purpose software we use.

So, hurrah from me on the IT support (work) angle, and also for my home PC looking like it’ll remain on Windows 7 a little longer. I was seriously looking at moving to an alternative to Linux, except the one MMO I play only works on Windows and PS4, so I was stuck.

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GoneToPlaid, bassmanzam

I will state my opinion and to my knowledge many of my colleagues who I talked to.

At my company we have about 200 Win7 clients that we never plan to upgrade to Win10.
This may change if MS opens up the Win10 to be more transparent and less intrusive but I don’t see that happening like never.
When the support for Win7 ends and the patching stops we plan to tighten up security around the potentially new exploits and continue to provide security that way.

I personally will never switch to Win10 unless it gets more “personal” again.
I belive that in the future MS will start to lose the battle on the OS front as it will be replaced by some sort of Android based OS for PC’s that will be free and simple to use as are the smartphones of today.
Already MS has lost many home users as they are moving away from the traditional desktop/laptop to a simpler and faster usable device like the Android/iOS tablet.
Only PC gamers are still the main users of new operating systems like Win10.

MS in my opinion is headed in the wrong way for years now and I think soon they would have past the point of no return.

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johnf, Grond, GoneToPlaid, Cybertooth, Canadian Tech

There’s more to this than just the chipset. For example, a Skylake processor combined with a 100-series chipset works with Windows 7. A Kaby Lake on the same chipset does not. So even if you have Windows 7 driver support for the chipset, Microsoft will have to relax or remove the CPU block.