Support for Win7/8?

[LexaGV]

I use Windows7 x64 and VSCodium WAS working on this platform. Why it doesn't work anymore? Is it possible to build Electron for Win7? Obviously there is NOTHING what Electron needs from Win10 what doesn't exist on Win7.

If it's not possible to recompile Electron, it could be nice AT LEAST keep mention of latest release which worked on Win7. Please, update README.

[africalimedrop]

See #1256
They need to do more than 'update the readme', they need to not offer the update on Win 7. We don't need our environments seamlessly fucked.

[paulcarroty]

Waiting for electron/electron#35597.

[daiyam]

I tried to find a doc for the system requirements to run electron (not to build it). I didn't found it...

[ghost]

Windows 7 support is mentioned in https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/main/README.md

Under electron/electron#35597 I have now added a question on whether there is a more formal support matrix - I couldn't find one either, you're right! It doesn't matter in this case because electron/electron#35597 has been treated as valid anyway.

[LexaGV]

It's even better news!! If Electron can (and must) run on Win7, then Codium has no problem at all to work on Win7 too! Am I right?

[GitMensch]

Note that "Visual Studio Code" 1.71+ explicit does not work with Windows 7 any more, because

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in January, 2020 and no longer provides security updates.

If you need an installation now it is likely best to use https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases/tag/1.70.2.22230 while the upstream Electron issue is solved - and ignore any updates until this issue is closed and a follow-up release is finished.

[LexaGV]

Guys, thanks for answer. Will Win7 info be reflected in README please? My English is far from good to do it. :)

Related "MS ended support for Win7" - sorry, how it corresponds to development?! Does your operating system gone away from SSD? Or Windows become rusty? Not. SYSTEM WORKS AS BEFORE, so please don't write stupid reasons "MS doesn't support" - nobody care of it, system works as usual and nothing prevents you from using Win7 (as I do now).

[GitMensch]

... as noted in the other issue: the README says what is the current state, once the upstream Electron issue is solved there is a chance that Win7 works again.
... and how MS' take corresponds to development: they explicit made clear that they won't take any effort of supporting "Visual Studio Code" under Win 7, and as vscode is Microsoft Copyright'ed and this repo builds the underlying "vscode" where only Microsoft has commit rights the decisions of MS have quite an effect on VSCodium, too.
BTW: VSCodium already provides binaries for more systems than "Visual Studio Code" does; and I personally think that this will also extend to Win 7.
Let's wait on Electron changes, and keep calm until then.
And of course: you are invited to help them out and once this is solved are invited to also build VSCodium on your Win7 box using this repo's build scripts and patches along with the changed version of Electron and report "first hand" - or wait a bit longer.

[GitMensch]

https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v19.1.0 is out with fixed Win7 support - canb we trigger an insider build that uses this version?

[Rike-cz]

Will be happy to have VSCodium on Windows 7 too. For Microsoft it isn't functional decision, but the product one (whatever it means). Electron looks to be fixed.

[GitMensch]

As noted above: Electron needs Windows 10 to build for Windows, because its build tools only run there; but with its September release (19.1.0) runs again on Windows 7 (not older as the used functions are just not available there). Microsoft made the decision to not care about older OS as Windows 10, because the official support for those ended already and they don't want to publish executables working there.
The idea is to now use an updated version of Electron with "Windows 7 support back again" - at least with the insider version - and see where this leads.

If you could help with that by doing so locally (on a Windows10/11 machine, of course) and test and report back, that would be very useful, otherwise you'd need to wait until someone finds the time to do so (or pay a dev to do this [no, I don't have any time available and I've never built vscodium my self so far]).

[ghost]

So @cyberhardt @lorand-horvath Can you test and drop a hint if the current zip file VSCodium works with VxKex on Win7?

I'm not home for the week so I can't test it on my machine at the moment

[selvagoat]

it still doesnt work it shows error kernel32

[GitMensch]

whats the latest version of vscodium that supports win 7?

That is noted less than 20 posts above - it is 1.81.x and the newest VSCodium release that matches is 1.81.1.

The only "open" question is: do newer versions work with VxKex, but other than this issue we have nothing left here, because as explained above there is nothing that VSCodium will do about replacing one of vscode's main dependencies (with the need to provide bigger and bigger patches).

If you have news about "it works when I do X, even when staying on Windows 7/8" then please post that, otherwise please don't post to this issue.

[lorand-horvath]

@GitMensch Why are you never actually linking to my comment? (You've done this 3 times AFAICT, which is a bit weird)
"This is noted" or "as noted above" is usually not enough. Also, re-stating the same thing again without linking to your source is not good practice, in general. If you'd proceed as such in peer-reviewed papers, for example, a lot of trouble would ensue.

[GitMensch]

The last VSCode (zip) and VSCodium still running on Windows 7 is 1.81.1 The next version 1.82 updates Electron from 22 to 25 and won't run on Win 7 anymore.

.... as noted by @lorand-horvath on August 20 at #1264 (comment) ...

which is kind of a follow-up to what @daiyam wrote in #1264 (comment) on July 6

Visual Studio Code 1.80 drops the support of Windows 8. It's using Electron 22 which support Windows 7 and 8. I'm editing VSCodium 1.80 to be able install/run on Windows 7/8 but I can't test them... We will have to drop Windows 7/8 when Visual Studio Code is moving to Electron 23 which drops Windows 7/8.

and the "forecast" to that at #1264 (comment)

[...] we now know that Windows 7 support will go out of scope because Electron follows Google as its base Chromium drops Win7 support with Electron 23: https://www.electronjs.org/blog/windows-7-to-8-1-deprecation-notice.

Deprecation timeline

The following is our planned deprecation timeline:

• November 2022: Electron 22 is released.
• December 2022: The Electron team is entering a quiet period for the holidays
• January 2023: Windows 7 & 8 related issues are accepted for all supported release branches.
• February 7 2023: Electron 23 is released.
• February 8 2023 - May 29 2023: Electron will continue to accept fixes for supported lines older than Electron 23.
• May 30 2023: Electron 22 reaches the end of its support cycle.

The questions:

• Do we already know when vscode is planning to switch to Electron 22 (which has Win7 Support until end of May 2023)?
  I've seen Update to Electron 22 microsoft/vscode#166265 which is also referenced as "investigating switch to that" for vscode 1.74 (not sure what that means for the release cycle as 1.73 was Electron 19).

• Do we already know when vscode is planning to switch to Electron 23?

As soon as the later is done I see no reasonable way to keep Win7 (or 8/8.1) support.

... @lorand-horvath asked:

Why are you never actually linking to my comment?

Because this issue is mentioned in several places by several people in this very issue (and the background, which has external reasons that are quoted is linked in a post from December 2022, which interestingly was even written by me).

Therefore I found it much more reasonable to link to what is not in this issue: the release that can be used with Win7/8/8.1.

[AXKuhta]

This fork https://github.com/Alex313031/codium/releases will continue to ship builds of vscodium with downgraded electron until January of next year.

[GitMensch]

This fork https://github.com/Alex313031/codium/releases will continue to ship builds of vscodium with downgraded electron until January of next year.

Thank you! Would you mind editing its README so this gets clearer and the "downgraded electron until January 2024" is also included? What will happen afterwards (and what's the reason to extend for Win7 for [only] 4 months)?

[AXKuhta]

@GitMensch I'm not the author of this fork! I just wanted to point out that it exists. No idea as to why they only plan to ship with downgraded electron for 4 more months.

@Alex313031 could you take a look at this?

[Alex313031]

@GitMensch @AXKuhta @LexaGV @guy-rouillier @Selva124 I need to update that. I have many Electron projects, including Codium. I was originally only going to use Electron 22 until October, but now I am going to use it longer than that, probably until October of 2024, when ESU for Windows 7 ends.

So rest assured, Codium, as well as all my other Electron projects, will continue to run on Win 7/8/8.1.

Also, I have a fork of upstream VSCode that similarly runs on Win7 > https://github.com/Alex313031/vscode-win7
My other Electron projects :
https://github.com/Alex313031/beaker-ng
https://github.com/Alex313031/quark-player
https://github.com/Alex313031/universal-paperclips-electron

[spacedrone404]

@GitMensch @AXKuhta @LexaGV @guy-rouillier @Selva124 I need to update that. I have many Electron projects, including Codium. I was originally only going to use Electron 22 until October, but now I am going to use it longer than that, probably until October of 2024, when ESU for Windows 7 ends.

So rest assured, Codium, as well as all my other Electron projects, will continue to run on Win 7/8/8.1.

Also, I have a fork of upstream VSCode that similarly runs on Win7 > https://github.com/Alex313031/vscode-win7 My other Electron projects : https://github.com/Alex313031/beaker-ng https://github.com/Alex313031/quark-player https://github.com/Alex313031/universal-paperclips-electron

Is there any way to get Win7 builds of VS code?
I can't find them on project page.

[GitMensch]

So far that seems to be only https://github.com/Alex313031/codium/releases (note @Alex313031 I do wonder if there are CPU "limits" like with your Thorium).

[spacedrone404]

So far that seems to be only https://github.com/Alex313031/codium/releases (note @Alex313031 I do wonder if there are CPU "limits" like with your Thorium).
So, no original VS code at this time..it's a pity.
A what is with cpu limits?

[sergeevabc]

By the way, recently I've moved from Supermium (Chrome 118 working on Windows 7) to Catsxp (Chrome 120 working on Windows 7, made in China). So there are smart guys who find ways to make Electron (which is a f* disaster since day one) working on Windows 7.

I hope one day @Alex313031 will roll out Supermium-Electron so that we can just unpack it into incompatible Electron projects (e.g. Obsidian) and make them working again.

[spacedrone404]

Supermium

v119 is already available.
Although i'm using FF 115esr.

[badrelmers]

only codium by Alex313031 worked for me in win 7 thanks to God, @Alex313031 thank you very much for your great work. https://github.com/Alex313031/codium/releases

VxKex did not work at all, vscodium still asked for some dll...

VSCodium 1.81.1 does not run in win 7, vscode 1.81.1 works fine!

to hide the upgrade notice in vscode 1.81.1, i found this trick

inside VSCode folder find "resources\app\out\vs\workbench\workbench.desktop.main.nls.js"
then change
"{0} on {1} will soon stop receiving updates. Consider upgrading your windows version.","Learn More"
to
,

it worked fine, but anyway now that we have codium by Alex313031 we do not need anything else, this is a gem that should be paid with gold.

thank you all for your rich information shared in this thread.

[spacedrone404]

Mirror post of above mentioned things on how to keep vscode alive under Win7 environment:
https://trackerninja.codeberg.page/post/how-to-run-latest-vs-code-in-windows-7-x64/

[GitMensch]

I think we should close this issue now, potentially by mentioning Alex' binaries that are based in VSCodium in the README. This would then also be the place when we cannot provide binaries for older GNU/Linux environments any more (to provide both he based the builds on an old node version).

For the Windows installers we should ensure that they don't declare Win 7/8 compat.

@daiyam what do you think?

[daiyam]

For the Windows installers we should ensure that they don't declare Win 7/8 compat.

Should already be the case

potentially by mentioning Alex' binaries

Sorry, I don't trust the guy who hides p*** images in his rebuilds.

[badrelmers]

I just found days ago that story .

For me in fact I trust a guy who hides p*** images in his rebuilds more than other anonymous rebuilds, because it seems not to be an organisation but just a simple human like us lol. What scares me the most is when a Chinese, American or Russian organization, for example, releases us a browser that seems so good and in the end it is nothing more than an organization to spy on us, like https://browser.360.cn/ee/en.html I install it on an old XP inside Sandboxie and was the only browser able to solve all the XP problems with the new web world sites. after using it for some months one day Sandboxie started acting differently, giving me some strange errors never seen before and changing the resolution and blocking all access to XP, which is only resolved after restarting the computer every time it happens. until one day I found that some programs were installed inside XP that I have never installed since I never install anything inside a computer except the official things from big organizations like Microsoft, Google, Adobe...etc, when I install something I always do it inside Sandboxie, but this time I found that some programs to manipulate photos and convert audio were installed outside Sandboxie!!, there I knew that this browser hacked Sandboxie and hacked my system, and I have never trusted again even in Sandboxie protection, and even less in the things that shine and that belong to unknown organizations. so this Alex seems innocent of those things and this is what matters most.

And also posting a p*** photo is not a crime in this liberal world :(, well I am against adult content because I am Muslim and that is against my religion and principles, but it is not fair to blame a young person for a photo while the large multinational multimillionaire transcontinental companies like Google, Bing, Yandex fill their search engines with adult content, I can't blame a young man for posting a photo... and if we are going to blame that young man then we have to blame Microsoft first and stop using Github first for allowing p*** in his search engine lol...

"O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for God, witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear God; indeed, God is Acquainted with what you do." Quran 5-8

[i486]

Latest build 1.87.2.24072 works fine with latest VxKex

[Alex313031]

@sergeevabc @daiyam @i486 @paulcarroty @guy-rouillier @spacedrone404 @GitMensch Yes, my Codium fork is the only up to date VSCode fork for Windows 7 without hacks, kernel extenders, etc.

Supermium-Electron is released by win32ss, and I made an issue there regarding stable builds.

And @GitMensch all Codium builds are compiled with SSE3 (which is the same as upstream Electron and Chromium), as well as other compiler optimizations. But no, not with AVX or anything, so there are no CPU limits.

[spacedrone404]

As i understand 1.88 is not easily possible on Win7.

[tamr]

As i understand 1.88 is not easily possible on Win7.

Why not? You can run with the help of extended kernel https://github.com/vxiiduu/VxKex

[Alex313031]

@tamr @spacedrone404 I have 1.89 running natively on Windows 7, without VxKex > https://github.com/Alex313031/codium/releases/tag/1.89.0.24129

[spacedrone404]

I have 1.89 running natively on Windows 7,

Yeah i saw this build of yours. Do you think we can run 2.0 on Windows 7 or it is already near the possible edge?