Hardware-Related

wufuc – Patch for unblocking Windows 7 and 8.1 Updates limitation on newer CPUs

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If the CPU model of your computer is relatively new (especially Intel Core i7 and higher), and because you have lost patience with the slick Windows 10 and have to change back to use the older versions of Windows 7, 8, 8.1, even Windows XP, then you will probably receive the following error message while trying to scan or download updates through Windows Update:

Unsupported hardware

Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss the important security updates. Please select the “Learn More” link to address this situation.

The reason for this error is the new generation of CPU demands the latest version of Windows to get support. For example, Windows 10 is the only Windows version that the following generations of CPU support:

  • Intel Core i7
  • AMD Bristol Ridge
  • Qualcomm 8996

The essence of this problem is: older operating systems are not compatible with newer hardwares. The root cause is that the update speed of Windows OS can’t keep up with the generation upgrading speed of hardware. But the immediate reason is Microsoft made a statement in a policy change: They would not be supporting Windows 7 or 8.1 on next-gen Intel, AMD and Qualcomm processors. That’s to say, Microsoft is forcing users of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 (a despicable marketing behavior), and don’t want to really postpone the support periods for Windows 7 and 8.1 to 2020 and 2023 respectively. In this regard, there are only three solutions at present:

  1. Upgrade Windows 7, 8, 8.1 to Windows 10
  2. Use wufuc patch to bypass/disable Microsoft’s update block (i.e. the “Unsupported hardware” message in Windows Update) for Windows 7, 8, 8.1
  3. Wait for the next generation of OS after Windows 10 being bound to fail (Or hope it could get back to the basics as soon as possible – dispenses with all unnecessary formalities)

The working principle of wufuc is: Disable the detection of processor generation and hardware support when PC tries to scan or download updates through Windows Update. After installing wufuc, this error message will disappear, and you will be able to continue installing updates on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 systems with Intel Kaby Lake, AMD Ryzen, or other unsupported processors.

At the end of this post, we should say thanks to the great user of AppNee – Romcel Geluz, who recommended this very helpful application with small population to AppNee and all its visitors. Thererfore, more users are going to benefit a lot from it (even if only a few users may need it finally).

// Key Features //

  • Enables Windows Update on PCs with unsupported processors
  • Written in C, the best programming language
  • Completely free (as in freedom) software
  • Does not modify any system files
  • Byte pattern-based patching, which means it will usually keep working even after new updates come out
  • No dependencies

// Affected older Intel & AMD processors //

Some people with older Intel and AMD processors are also affected! The author has received user reports of the following CPUs all being blocked from receiving updates:

// Working Principle //

This is a basic run-down of what wufuc does when you install it:

  • The installer registers a scheduled task that automatically starts wufuc on system boot/user log on.
  • Depending on how the Windows Update service is configured to run, wufuc will:
    • Shared process: inject itself into the service host process that Windows Update will run in when it starts.
    • Own process: wait for the Windows Update service to start and then inject into it.
  • Once injected, wufuc will hook some functions where appropriate:
    • LoadLibraryExW hook will automatically hook the IsDeviceServiceable() function inside wuaueng.dll when it is loaded.
    • RegQueryValueExW hook is necessary to provide compatibility with UpdatePack7R2. This hook not applied whenwuauserv is configured to run in its own process.

// Related Links //

// Download URLs //

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