Will Elite: Dangerous survive the loss of Windows 7 Support from Microsoft?

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

Hospitals and stuff still use the old OSs. If MS dig in about it there could be consequences. But as you say home users are gamers, is there actually any reason for us to update?…

Businesses can still get support for Win7 from Microsoft (for a price).

The reason for home users - consumers - to upgrade is to get the latest security patches. That's something rather important today - more important than new features in my opinion.
Sure, Microsoft could offer those security updates for older systems, but the more systems they have to support the more it costs to make those patches. Microsoft offered consumers a free upgrade to Win10 - for all I know that still works - making the move to Win10 for many users a cost free thing. And even if a customer decided to buy Win10 - it costs 150€ for the home edition. Not really that much for something a user would buy once and use it for 10 years or something.

A nice side effect is that less different operating software versions makes it easier for developers to make software as it reduces the amount of testing for old and obsolete tech.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

The default privacy and advertisement settings are comically bad, while telemetry cannot be wholly disabled without fairly advanced knowledge.

Can you truly turn it off? Is it also possible to prove?

The only thing that seems to be the problem is new hardware, you don't have a choice? I still find it strange though that hardware vendors don't provide windows 7 drivers for the chipsets at least. Who cares if you're not taking advantage of the latest instructions (if they've even been advancing those in the last decade, lost touch since not needing to upgrade for so long).

For me, i was early riding the wave for graphics cards to fully support my 2560x1600 monitor. When they finally did around 780TI (and those were so cheap too), i cheered, then my jaw dropped at how the world suddenly started doing 4k and the whole thing would start again. Hell no. Was waiting almost 10 years for this. Im happy with my 30's. Up to the ray tracing there's been no point as well beyond resolution and > 60fps. The raytracing stuff does look good though. Will just have to get though my steam backlog first. Hmm. Maybe when my toddler is old enough for his

 

[Morbad]

Can you truly turn it off? Is it also possible to prove?

Yes, at least until the next major patch re-enables or changes things. And you can prove it simply by logging network traffic.

The only thing that seems to be the problem is new hardware, you don't have a choice? I still find it strange though that hardware vendors don't provide windows 7 drivers for the chipsets at least. Who cares if you're not taking advantage of the latest instructions (if they've even been advancing those in the last decade, lost touch since not needing to upgrade for so long).

Microsoft has a lot of pull over hardware manufacturers and both are usually looking to push their newest products.

 

[Koben]

Win10 is cancer... and Microsoft decided to allow developers to use DX12 in Win7 as lots of gamers are still running Win7, myself included. I'd rather use Linux than migrate to Win10

 

[Taimaru]

I think the decision to drop Windows 7 will be based on whether a feature Frontier want to include / improve relies on Windows 10 technology and it is too difficult or impossible to write/maintain for Windows 7. For example when Elite: Dangerous went 64 bit only or when they dropped support for Mac OS X.

I'm also sure that Frontier will give us plenty of notice so those still running Windows 7 can upgrade in time for the release of the update.

 

[Ezren]

The last time I checked there are still more people using Windows 7 than Windows 10, so I can't comment on that either way.

I'm not sure when you last checked but...

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Considering the vast majority have already moved on from Win 7 or its not a problem for them to switch to Win 10, its highly unlikely the stopping of support will affect FD in any way except for some of their older games.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

With the 441.20 drivers, im getting performance beyond what i think i deserve for this little system. Still need to kick the tyres some more and do a like for like test in windows 7.. but have in the hand a good config at least.

 

[Hendozero]

I expect there is a very significant fraction of ED players still on Windows 7 today. Not anywhere near a plurality, but far more than were ever using 32-bit systems or pre-DX11 GPUs for the game when they ended support for those. I'd be surprised if it were significantly under 20%.

Windows 7 actually saw a major surge in the latest Steam surveys in December 2019: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/directx/

I've performed fresh installs of both Windows 10 and Windows 7 in the last month.

The surge in Windows 7 in the December Steam survey is matched by a similar surge in use of Chinese on Steam (both were +14%), so I think it's pretty clear what's going on there. The exact same thing happened when the Chinese got into PUBG.

Before the Chinese surge, Windows 10 (64 bit) was on 74% with Windows 7 (64 bit) only on 18.5%. The share of ED players on Windows 7 is highly likely to be less than that (is ED localised for Chinese?), so suprise!!!

The truth is that Windows 7 falling out of support will be the final nail in the coffin, and at some point, Frontier will look at the numbers and decide that it's better for everyone if they drop support for Windows 7 as well. It's only a matter of time, so my advise would be to stop trying to fight the inevitable (there is literally nothing good that can come from it) and do the upgrade.

 

[Raino]

nobody is fighting here, once it NEEDS to be done it will be done, atm it is not, so no, that's all

 

[Factabulous]

The truth is that Windows 7 falling out of support will be the final nail in the coffin, and at some point, Frontier will look at the numbers and decide that it's better for everyone if they drop support for Windows 7 as well. It's only a matter of time, so my advise would be to stop trying to fight the inevitable (there is literally nothing good that can come from it) and do the upgrade.

I would imagine they'll drop it from the list of supported platforms pretty fast - after all they probably won't be able to run Windows 7 internally themselves without paying extra support fees and most companies will have a clear policy that computers must be fully patched etc. If they don't have win7 internally then they can't test new patches, so bye bye Win7 support.

It may be a while after that before the download becomes incompatible, but I doubt they will try very hard to stay compatible wit an obsolete OS.

 

[Morbad]

It's only a matter of time, so my advise would be to stop trying to fight the inevitable (there is literally nothing good that can come from it) and do the upgrade.

I have five systems capable of running ED. Two are Windows 7, one is Server 2016 (1607), one is Server 2019 (1809), and one Windows 10 (1909). I have no intention of changing the OS on any of these (the systems still on Windows 7 will stay on Windows 7 until they are cannibalized for parts or die). I do not expect ED to cease to function on any of these any time soon...the 2020 paid expansion (probably 10-12 months off) at the absolute earliest, and I suspect Windows 7 will remain a viable OS for the game for as long as the game is supported on any platform.

at some point, Frontier will look at the numbers and decide that it's better for everyone if they drop support for Windows 7 as well.

Even an ~18% share (which I suspect is a low-ball figure for the number of ED clients still on Windows 7) is an order of magnitude more users than those who were on 32-bit OSes or using DX10 parts, that were major technical limitations for the game, for which they gave over a year's notice (32-bit support didn't end until the release of 2.4) before terminating.

Without the implementation of ray tracing, or some other massive change that would be difficult to support on Windows 7, Frontier has no reason to prevent the game from running on Windows 7.

 

[Clicker]

This isn't really meant as a debate thread on the merits of these platforms, but rather wondering at the direction of Frontier and what they will continue to support.

This is not rocket surgery...FD will only continue to support platforms or OSs that are supported by their respective vendors on platforms FD have written ED for.

It's the only real option for ANYONE who writes or supports PC based software or hardware.

Clicker

 

[Gully Foyle]

This is not meant as a rhetorical question. I will not be updating on my main PC, but rather running Linux where applicable, or staying on Windows 7 and supporting it myself.

With Steam no longer officially supporting Windows XP last year, even though several of the games they sell are only officially supported on that platform, there is a shadow cast across the PC world, and what it means to own and use a PC on your own accordance, on your own behalf.

Would love to hear from Frontier here, but let me know what you think as a user of these various OSs all the same.

Cheers, and happy new year.

How would Elite: Dangerous suffer from lack of Microsoft supporting Windows 7?

 

[Drelthar]

I doubt FD will specifically care about which version of Windows they "support" more likely, they will just continue to code the game based on it running "on windows"

They dropped support for Mac due to impossible environment conditions gfx wise, and they removed 32 bit support which isn't operating system specific (really) because they again couldn't do what they wanted to do within that constraint.

Fairly sure windows (insert version) support isn't based on the operating system, but on if the operating system happens to be able to run the tech.

 

[Bryan K]

Won’t be an issue for me. I have a Win7 rig and a Win10 mobile rig.

Eventually they’ll both be Win10, since right now only my mobile rig can run the Rift S, but once graphics cards become improved enough to warrant the ditching of my three perfectly good SLI’d Titan Xs in my main rig, I’ll do a full overhaul, OS included.

For someone who only does gaming, office work, and occaisional 3d modelling as a hobby, Win10 doesn’t really offer any roadblocks, except compatibility with particularly ancient games.

 

[Koben]

I hope Microsoft come back to its sense and release a better replacement for Win7 before they actually become fundamently irrelevant to the whole desktop PC industry like they did with their mobile (cellphone) segment.

 

[MickyG1982]

It'll survive it right up to the point where drivers are no longer being produced for it...

Then it will be in borrowed time.

At this point Windows 7 still holds around 27% of the Windows Market share (not insignificant) but the trend is only going downwards.

Desktop Windows Version Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats

This graph shows the market share of desktop windows versions worldwide based on over 5 billion monthly page views.

gs.statcounter.com

 

[GJ51]

It shouldn't be any problem.

It's also pretty easy to update to Win 10 (I'll be testing tomorrow if it can still be done for free on a friend's laptop) and following a few guides here and there it can be stripped of the spyware and run very cleanly.

I've got my Win 10 machines all cleaned and all telemetry back to MS blocked. It felt like it would be a PITA when I was still on Win 7 and didn't want to upgrade, but now that it's done, I have no regrets. Be sure to install without using an MS email account. They hide how to do it pretty well, but the how-to info is out there.

YMMV

I still run a few Win 7 machines just for watching TV over network using an HDHomerun with 3 tuners to CATV and WMC. Those are the only ones I plan to keep on Win 7.

 

[Asmodeus]

If something comes out on a pc that I cannot run it on, I just bild one that can.