Many of us were getting accustomed to Microsoft two-, three-year or longer spells of a complete Windows overhaul in terms of updates until Windows 8 happened with its Metro design approach that did not receive a lot of love from users thanks to its decision to drop a start menu button, among other minor design missteps that leaned on touch executions rather than the good old mouse and keyboard combo. The issue was fixed with later iterations of the OS, and Microsoft made the system better with Windows 10 that came as a free upgrade till June 2016.
It turns out that the Redmond-based company is dropping support for some 2-in-1 computers released in 2012/3/4. Notably, these PCs met the minimum requirements needed for Windows 10, and were even eligible for Windows 10 first major upgrade aka the Anniversary Update. Unfortunately, the same PCs are not installing the second major update dubbed Creators Update. Specifically, version 1703 of the update fails to install and typical to Microsoft’s vague error messages, users are getting a ‘Windows 10 is no longer supported. Uninstall this app now because it isn’t compatible with Windows 10’ line.
There is no app that needs to be uninstalled; the problem is based on compatibility issues between OEMs and the latest updates of Windows 10. In fact, updated setup files are run, the same same error message is displayed.
In particular, devices using Intel Atom Clover Trail series CPUs are the primary culprits. These are chips that was commonly used in early 2-in-1 computers that were introduced in a bid to have a slice of a market that is mostly Surface Pro territory.
Microsoft has since announced that computers with Atom Z2760, Z2520, Z2560 and Z2580 will not be supported on Windows 10 Creators Update.
Worth pointing out is that Microsoft promised to release updates for Windows 10 ‘for the supported lifetime of a device.’ However, the 10-year support lifecycle has a gray area where MS explains that ‘a device may not be able to receive updates if the device hardware is incompatible, lacking current drivers, or otherwise outside of the OEM support period.’ It is clear that the rule is being applied here.
Intel has since discontinued the production of Atom Z CPUs and because they are entry level processors, users should not be surprised that their hardware is getting out of date.
