Windows 7 ~ Microsoft relents on shorter Windows 7 support decree

[m_c]

I'd say it's a very safe bet it's from OEMs and the huge number of embedded type system suppliers, who are running hardware that quite simply won't work, or at least not without an uneconomical amount of investment on anything newer.

I know we have some diagnostic kit at work that was still being supplied new on a 4 year lease until early this year, which runs on Win7. If the support for those kind of systems was withdrawn, I'm pretty sure the suppliers would be very quickly looking at alternative options where they had more control over end of life agreements.

[Neale]

I've just upgraded one of my systems from w7 to w10. Lots of problems but nothing to do with Microsoft - the motherboard was 6 years old and it turned out that Intel had stopped supporting that chipset 3 years ago so no drivers officially available. That's one problem with continuing with old hardware - you might end up with something that becomes difficult to support for all sorts of reasons. I can sympathise with the OEMs who want a well-defined and never-changing product while everyone in the supply chain is following a latest-and-greatest improvement policy without telling anyone.

[magicniner]

OEM, Original Equipment Manufacturer, in, and the start of the supply chain ;-)