<P> On March 18, 2016, in response to criticism from enterprise customers, Microsoft delayed the end of support and non-critical updates for Skylake systems to July 17, 2018, but stated that they would also continue to receive security updates through the end of extended support . In August 2016, citing a "strong partnership with our OEM partners and Intel", Microsoft retracted the decision and stated that it would continue to support Windows 7 and 8.1 on Skylake hardware through the end of their extended support lifecycle . However, the restrictions on newer CPU microarchitectures remain in force . </P> <P> In March 2017, a Microsoft knowledge base article was discovered which implies that devices using Intel Kaby Lake, AMD Bristol Ridge, or AMD Ryzen, would be blocked from using Windows Update entirely . In addition, official Windows 7 device drivers are not available for the Kaby Lake and Ryzen platforms . </P> <P> Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was announced on March 18, 2010 . A beta was released on July 12, 2010 . The final version was released to the public on February 22, 2011 . At the time of release, it was not made mandatory . It was available via Windows Update, direct download, or by ordering the Windows 7 SP1 DVD . The service pack is on a much smaller scale than those released for previous versions of Windows, particularly Windows Vista . </P> <P> Windows 7 Service Pack 1 adds support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), a 256 - bit instruction set extension for processors, and improves IKEv2 by adding additional identification fields such as E-mail ID to it . In addition, it adds support for Advanced Format 512e as well as additional Identity Federation Services . Windows 7 Service Pack 1 also resolves a bug related to HDMI audio and another related to printing XPS documents . </P>

When was windows 7 service pack 1 released