Windows 10 - Is your device really supported ?

This week I had to perform a clean install of Windows 10 onto my Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet.  The upgrade from 10130 to 10158 did not go well and I needed to do a clean install anyway..

During that process I went out to the Dell Support site to downloaded the latest OS deployment driver package to insure all the devices would work on the Venue.  Since the core of Windows 10 is very much like Windows 8 most if not all drivers work perfectly.   And these did as well... 

But a funny thing happened along the way....

Like many support sites today - the Dell site recognizes what OS you are running and then shows you the downloads available for that OS.

When I did that with Windows 10 - I got huge notice that Windows 10 was not supported on my device...

Wait a minute - what ?

So the Venue 8 Pro I have is a model 5830 - built in late 2013 and came with Windows 8.1...it runs an Intel Atom Z3740D dual core 1.3Ghz processor with 2GB of RAM and a 64Gb HD and a Dell 1538 WiFi/BT adapter..

According to MS - I am eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 during its first year of release...    But hmmm...now the hardware vendor says not so quick.. Windows 10 is NOT supported on this device..  

I had been running Windows 10 on the Venue since the first preview builds back in November and the device has worked flawlessly...    

So WTF is going on...and more importantly is this a sign of how OEMs are planning on supporting Windows 10...

Now on the one side this is nothing new.  As we all know- new OS offerings are catalysts for new hardware sales.   Also that in recent years most OEM PC manufacturers like HP, Dell, IBM/Lenovo would often support their more recent devices (typically 2 years old or less) on the latest version of Windows.

But that model has changed.  More and more drivers are coming through Windows Update instead of vendor downloads.   MS has generic versions of a lot of device drivers and while not stellar - allow the device to work..  Since many devices also use Intel's Graphics versus a nVidia or AMD that piece is easier as well..

I have run many a system on Windows 8.1 that has no support from the OEM and have never looked back - so why is this any different...

Maybe it's unique to tablets since most vendors look at them more like one time devices and not full fledged computers.   

But the fact that a major OEM would state very clearly that a less than two year old tablet designed for Windows 8.1 will not be supported on Windows 10 shows me something about both the OEM and MS....  

First is that while MS states their requirements for Windows 10 are pretty minimal and well within the specs of my Venue - and that they provide a lot of component level drivers within the OS - the fact is they don't seem to be getting deep support for Windows 10...

Similarly on the OEM side.   Only just this week did I see any mention of Windows 10 support for newly purchased devices.  So called Windows 10 ready devices - just like Windows 8, 7, etc before them..     But most of those systems are either new this year or 2014 at best...   So don't expect any support for a systems over I would say 18 months old.   It's just an economics thing - OEMs would rather not have to write or provide any drivers outside of what Intel provided if they could.  They invest in these when it provides some level of value add to the system - they couldn't get directly from the component manufacturer.

This raises the question to me about the MS announcement about free upgrade to Windows 10 for all W7, W8 users in the first year.   While that certainly may be a true statement it probably also needs to be asterisked - to either state A) if your OEM supports the platform or B) don't expect OEM support for all devices.

Bottom line - If you have a device - PC, Laptop, Tablet, whatever and especially if it has vendor specific drivers for things like Wifi, or Bluetooth stacks or Security features like fingerprint readers, TPM chipsets, etc - please do some due diligence with the vendor to see if they will support Windows 10.   While in some cases you may be able to find a driver from the component manufacturer more often then not they will point you back to the PC vendor.   

Is the lack of support going to stop me from running Windows 10 on my Venue - No.   But as I've stated before with Windows 10 - if you haven't been running the preview builds and understand how your device runs it - do not just plan on upgrading and expect everything to work perfectly..   



  





 

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