Windows 10 users warned of Clover Trail incompatibility

Acer has confirmed that the Windows 10 Creators Update is currently incompatible with any and all devices running on Intel's Clover Trail family of low-power Atom processors - and Microsoft is presently silent on whether that will change any time soon.

Released earlier this year as one half of Microsoft's planned two-prong feature update cycle for 2017, the Creators Update adds a number of shiny new features to Windows 10. Sadly, these features - and, given Microsoft's switch to a cumulative update process, all future updates - are unavailable to users of entry-level machines running on Intel's Clover Trail family of Atom-branded processors. 'Windows 10 is no longer supported on this PC,' users are warned when the 3GB update has been downloaded and installation attempted - but not, annoyingly, when the system checks for compatibility prior to downloading the update.

Microsoft has so far been entirely silent on the issue, but hardware partner Acer has published confirmation of the issue as affecting Intel's Atom Z2760, Z2520, Z2560, and Z2580 processors, while warning that even if installation is successful it may result in graphical abnormalities seemingly related to driver issues with the chips' integrated graphics processors (IGPs). 'Microsoft is working with us to help provide compatible drivers to address this incompatibility,' Acer claimed. 'If you install the Windows 10 creators update, icons and text may not appear at all, or may show up as solid colour blocks or bars. If you have already installed Creators Update and are experiencing problems, you can use Windows 10 recovery options to restore your system to the previous build.'

ZDNet has confirmed the flaw on an in-house Clover Trail machine, the HP Envy X2, and that as a result of Microsoft's shift to only offering cumulative updates a failure to install the Creators Update will also block future feature and security updates from the affected machine. Thus far, though, Microsoft has not formally confirmed the issue nor offered timescale for a patch that would allow the Creators Update to be installed successfully on Clover Trail systems, even as the company continues to promote the upcoming Fall Creators Update release scheduled for later this year.