Seeking clarification about end of Windows 7 support.

[rayrayblues]

IDK,  maybe

[Dragon1-1]

It's likely something like that. Windows 10 does have a few cool features included, but few would lead to such hard dependency. Hopefully it pans out, DCS really should perform better than it currently does.

[RogerSanchesz]

16.01.2021 в 20:17, FoxTwo сказал:

Stop using an out of date END OF SUPPORT operating system that's no longer receiving security updates when you can STILL upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

 

Problem solved.

 

 

It's not really that easy to upgrade to windows 10 .On my first computer, I could not do this because of the outdated processor of the Aterin swim, although the game was running.Now I'm doing fine but this applies more to players with an old computer.

Edited January 22, 2021 by RogerSanchesz

[rayrayblues]

On 1/21/2021 at 3:47 PM, 5ephir0th said:

It´s the 2.7 coming with a new engine (maybe with DX12 support)

 

Maybe,     I sure hope so.

 

On 1/21/2021 at 3:47 PM, 5ephir0th said:

so that's why it makes it Win7 not supported?

 

Yes.  

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

On 1/21/2021 at 5:59 PM, Dragon1-1 said:

It's likely something like that. Windows 10 does have a few cool features included, but few would lead to such hard dependency. Hopefully it pans out, DCS really should perform better than it currently does.

Indeed. My upgrade to 10 saw smoother performance. It's time to let Windows 7 to go live on a nice farm upstate.

[DeCypher]

On 1/17/2021 at 8:48 PM, BIGNEWY said:

 

Next and last update for supporting windows 7 is planned for the 27th of January. I dont have a date for patches following that update yet. 

 

You may find windows 7 works after this, but we are expecting issue for windows 7 users with patches when we get to 2.7, hence the warning now for switching to windows 10. 

 

Please dont derail this thread with pros and cons of windows 10 over 7. Windows 7 is end of life, microsoft have stopped supporting it with there own software, and the time has come for DCS to stop supporting it also as it is holding back new code and features.  

 

thanks

Thanks for this answer. Previous posts about the end of Windows 7 support made it sound like the application was going to be programmed to do an operating system check on startup and terminate itself if it detects it's not running on Windows 10, which screams Microsoft Exclusivity Agreement, however, this suggests that it's simply a case of no longer testing in, and ensuring compatibility with, Windows 7. That's not something I'm particularly happy about, but a "time and money" argument is at least an argument that I can accept. My reasons for not moving to Windows 10 extend beyond just the practical into the ethical, but that's my issue to deal with. I do have two questions though.

 

1) What happens with early access modules that were advertised as being compatible with Windows 7 at the time of sale, but now Windows 7 users will not be able to receive the finished product that they've already paid for?

 

2) It has been said that users who do not want to, or can't, downgrade to Windows 10 can continue to use DCS by not updating to 2.7, however, having just checked in Steam I do not see how this is possible for Steam users. Steam forces you to update a game to the latest version before you can play it. The only option is the BETAS configuration. Will ED configure a "beta" in steam for the last pre-2.7 version?

[Worrazen]

 

[sc_neo]

@DeCypher You make some good points. I am on windows 7 and until a bad supprise on Wednesday i thought "win 7 ain't officially supported anymore with 2.7" meant ED would not lend support in regards to getting it to run or when experiencing bugs (which would be fine i reckon). But i can't even install the update or install a fresh additional 2.7 copy because the installation is completely blocked.

So i sure would like to know whether this is due to real technical differences (win 10 exclusive libraries or runtimes or something) OR if this is simply due to make a clean cut and have no hussle about win 7 users?

 

[IIIJG52_Otto_]

On 4/17/2021 at 10:43 PM, sc_neo said:

@DeCypher You make some good points. I am on windows 7 and until a bad supprise on Wednesday i thought "win 7 ain't officially supported anymore with 2.7" meant ED would not lend support in regards to getting it to run or when experiencing bugs (which would be fine i reckon). But i can't even install the update or install a fresh additional 2.7 copy because the installation is completely blocked.

So i sure would like to know whether this is due to real technical differences (win 10 exclusive libraries or runtimes or something) OR if this is simply due to make a clean cut and have no hussle about win 7 users?

 

I ´ve Windows 7 Home Premium SP-1, in Spanish, in my computer from 2011 with a about 1Tb of software CAD-CAM, Graphic edition, etc.
I usually run DCS on STEAM with "BETA versions" option activated. After two weeks without using it, two days ago i start DCSW on steam and it updated automatically, but game don´t started, it show a error window, with a messge about "missing file api-ms-win-downlevel-kernel32-l2-1-0.dll"
 

I went to this forum for search info, a them i read about end of Windows 7 support in DCSW after versión 2.7 released. ..But STEAM said nothing about this issue.

 

I've tried to download and paste the missing DLL in game folder, but game shown other different error message, and i reverted the BETA option in STEAM, to game normal 2.5 version.

 

 

 

[sc_neo]

This might be due to some .net framework updates missing nor not being available on win 7. Searching for this very .dll file on the net gets results about a similar issue with the epic games launcher and folks troubleshooting it on Epic's forums. I reckon you needed to place that .dll in a different location in one of your windows 7 system folders or so, not inside DCS. The answer might be here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/prgram-cant-start-cause-api-ms-win-downlevel-kernal32-blah-blah-dll-is-missing/156022/63

Let me if you get it to work on win 7.

 

From your report it seems that 2.7 already does not even start without issues on win 7, even if you get it installed via steam. So i guess i won't waste time chasing this up myself and take a break from DCS until i find the nerv and muse to setup Win 10 according to my privacy standards and rip every bit of telemetry, auto-updates and Cortana etc. out of it. Maybe during the next winter season.

 

Maybe most of my EA DCS modules have fully matured by then as well

[Avimimus]

On 1/20/2021 at 7:51 AM, Furiz said:

Wait... seriously?

 

So the push to upgrade to win10 was this ED decision to stop the win7 support, you didn't have any hint before?

Like the fact that Microsoft cut down the support for win7 a year ago?

Like the fact that win 7 released in 2009, about 12 years ago?

In the meantime there was Win8, and Win10 that we have today, with Win10 being released in 2015.

 

So all this time you have had no proper push to upgrade to win10?

 

You can find win10 key for digital download online, google it, it is very cheap about 3€. Presuming you have moved from dial-up connection, if not may this be a proper push for you to go DSL ;D

 

Most of the games I play would stop working on Win 10... a lot of old games.

 

So yes - this may well be the reason I upgrade.

[Reticuli]

Well that sucks.

[Mogster]

On 5/1/2021 at 8:12 PM, Avimimus said:

 

Most of the games I play would stop working on Win 10... a lot of old games.

 

So yes - this may well be the reason I upgrade.

Even with compatibility mode? Compatibility mode does seem to be much better than it used to be, when I upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7 my heart was heavy but nothing actually stopped working.

[Avimimus]

6 hours ago, Mogster said:

Even with compatibility mode? Compatibility mode does seem to be much better than it used to be, when I upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7 my heart was heavy but nothing actually stopped working.

 

I don't know yet  Compatibility mode does seem to improve over time (e.g. Win7 and WinXP now running some Win 95/98 games). The thing is that I only have one Win 7 license. Does anyone know if there is still a viable upgrade path from Win XP to Win 10?

 

Alternatively, is it possible to roll back to Win 7? OR if I upgrade - will that key always be a Win 10 key moving forward? It seems to be getting harder to obtain new copies of Win 7 these days.

[Lange_666]

You can always get a cheap Win10 license through these websites:

 

https://www.urcdkeys.com/   https://www.cdkoffers.com/  https://www.u2key.com/

 

If you wait a bit on a sale or use a Guru3D https://www.guru3d.com/ sales code (you'll find a few if you scroll down on the 1st page), you can get one for less then 10$.

 

[Mogster]

From the article below it appears you can still upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 no questions asked. I wouldn’t be too surprised as if it’s up to them MS will just want people migrated and so not encouraged to glance around at other options.
 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

[BitMaster]

You could also have 2 Disks, 1 with 10 and 1 with 7 installed and choose by Bios or Boot-Option F-key which one to start but you cannot install both on 1 physical disk.

 

Best is to deactivate one OS-drive by Bios or pulling cables while installing the other, this way you get 2 fully working Bootloaders...and then you can choose what to boot.

 

 

Another option would be VMware Workstation 16 or Hyper-V. Hyper-V is free with 10 Pro and VMware WS can be purchased on eBay for as low as 2-3€, done that multiple times and it works. AT least with VMware you should be able to play most older games in FS with enough performance to make it worth.

 

No reason to ditch 10 in favor for 7, you can have both.

Edited May 26, 2021 by BitMaster