Windows 7 Unsupported

Nihilr · February 2

After Update 41.

This is a really really big change snuck in their patch notes and I wonder how many people are still running Windows 7 still. One of our computers is, one is on Windows 11. Both run the game fine and the Windows 11 computer was my newest build my husband has done for us.

Obviously a lot of Windows 7 support has been disappearing for many softwares in the last few years, it would have been nice to get more visibility on this subject though--because now we have to budget ANOTHER new computer to build which we were hoping to postpone another year. At least we already had the parts on our wishlist, just sucks to drop $800 in hardware and stuff with less than 2 months notice (and quiet notice, at that).

Yes yes:

* "Just install Windows 10!" Nope, Windows 10 loses support from Microsoft soon also.

* "Just install Windows 11!" My old computer is 10 years old and doesn't support Windows 11. We need a new MoBo, CPU, memory, cooling, power supply, etc.

So yeah. Guess I'll let my husband know to purchase those parts quickly so we can keep playing ESO together. 🤦‍♀️

edit: typos

edit 2: I've been corrected and the game will still be playable. But it will eventually be unplayable on W7 someday so this is still relevant.

Araneae6537 · February 2

I’m confused — didn’t ESO stop officially supporting Windows 7 some time ago? Or is there a change that will make it really no longer run in Windows 7?

I’ve been reluctant to “upgrade” Windows too as it seems so bloated and I don’t like the UI changes and ESO still runs, although manual adjustments after some updates have been required.

Nihilr · February 2

Meh. Still playable but for how long*

lillybit · February 2

There's going to be a change to the minimum system requirements. Iirc they said it'll still work on Windows 7 with the update, but it won't be tested on 7 any more so there might be issues in the future

FluffyBird · February 2

Doesn't Win 10 work without activation? If so, you could upgrade without buying a license just so that you aren't in a rush to build new PC.

Personally, I installed Win 10 on my own new PC just because I heard that Win 11 sucks.

Elsonso · February 2

As I see it, ESO will probably run fine on Windows 7 for a while, even after Update 41.

The bigger issue would be the lack of support from Microsoft, which has already ended. ESO will just run until it doesn't run.

Nihilr · February 2

lillybit wrote: »

There's going to be a change to the minimum system requirements. Iirc they said it'll still work on Windows 7 with the update, but it won't be tested on 7 any more so there might be issues in the future

Yeah I am slow and skipped the middle of the paragraph because it is confusing.

I still think that Window 7 will be phased out soon, and this still puts us in a situation that we need to upgrade our hardware and install W11 in the next few months.

Tandor · February 2

Elsonso wrote: »

As I see it, ESO will probably run fine on Windows 7 for a while, even after Update 41.

The bigger issue would be the lack of support from Microsoft, which has already ended. ESO will just run until it doesn't run.

There's no problem with security support, 0patch provides an excellent service and quite cheaply too.

Necrotech_Master · February 2

FluffyBird wrote: »

Doesn't Win 10 work without activation? If so, you could upgrade without buying a license just so that you aren't in a rush to build new PC.

Personally, I installed Win 10 on my own new PC just because I heard that Win 11 sucks.

ive used both win 10 and win 11, win 11 is a little different but for just an OS it seems fine to me

what is annoying about win 11 is it has some ridiculous install requirements, for instance one of my gaming desktops was not eligible for win 11 due to not meeting its requirements, but an older gaming laptop that is spec wise worse than the desktop will support win 11 (though i intentionally havent upgraded it to win 11 lol)

Kavreiss · February 2

Install LInux! Eso runs great on linux

Kavreiss · February 2

If you want windows 10 get a windows 10 key legit for like 20$ many place online

lillybit · February 2

WhosTheFancyOneNow wrote: »

Install LInux! Eso runs great on linux

Wait, there's something it runs great on??

Nihilr · February 2

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

Doesn't Win 10 work without activation? If so, you could upgrade without buying a license just so that you aren't in a rush to build new PC.

Personally, I installed Win 10 on my own new PC just because I heard that Win 11 sucks.

ive used both win 10 and win 11, win 11 is a little different but for just an OS it seems fine to me

what is annoying about win 11 is it has some ridiculous install requirements, for instance one of my gaming desktops was not eligible for win 11 due to not meeting its requirements, but an older gaming laptop that is spec wise worse than the desktop will support win 11 (though i intentionally havent upgraded it to win 11 lol)

My husband "jailbroke" Windows 11 requirements so that his new MoBo and processor could skip the security specs for install.
The other issue was that he still uses Windows 7 on a dualboot, and Windows 7 and Windows 11 don't play well together because you have to have specific formatting on the memory drive to support Windows 11 no matter what. So he had to REINSTALL windows 7 after partitioning the drive for Windows 11. There was no way around it.

Just a tip for those that plan to dual boot.

Better to deal with this stuff now than find out later after the new chapter launches and the game is unpayable. We both preordered Gold Road so we want to make sure we didn't just waste our money on something unplayable or going to have bugs due to DirectX incompatibilities someday or something. 🤦‍♀️

Ragnork · February 2

Windows 10 support runs until at least 2025 and then there is the Opatch route.
My laptop can not be upgraded to Windows 11, so will either be kept as Windows 10 via the Opatch route or changed to Linux.

Tornaad · February 2

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 7 4 years ago. You will be lucky to find anyone who still supports it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-support-ended-on-january-14-2020-b75d4580-2cc7-895a-2c9c-1466d9a53962

Nihilr · February 2

Tornaad wrote: »

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 7 4 years ago. You will be lucky to find anyone who still supports it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-support-ended-on-january-14-2020-b75d4580-2cc7-895a-2c9c-1466d9a53962

And we get that, but some softwares still are used and those releases on new OS' can be unpredictable due to lack of testing. This computer that we have to upgrade (now/eventually) will just be Windows 11 since he got his dual boot to work (finally). The Windows 11 is fine as long as you dom it and limit background sneakies. lol

Tommy_The_Gun · February 2

I think that you should still be able to upgrade Win 7 to Win 10 for free. Win 11 is very problematic to install on older hardware and updates may cause some issues if you have unsupported CPU.

As far as I am aware, Win 10 still accepts Win 7 & 8 Key, so you should be able to upgrade it to Win 10. Just download Windows media creation tool and see what it says.

If it is not possible to upgrade with newest Win 10 system image, you can always try to download some older build of Win 10 system image and you should be able to upgrade for free.

And I know Win 10 will be abandoned in a future, but Win 7 was abandoned loooong time ago and it was still supported for a very long time. Win 10 will be no different and something tells me it will be supported even longer than Win 7 as a lot of people did not moved to Win 11 as they did not liked it much.

If everything else fails, then you can always instal Steam OS on an older computer and run ESO (and other games) through Steam (it has Proton Direct X translation so that almost every windows exe will work). If the alterative is to get rid of older computer that is a e-waste cuz some one at MS said so, then it is way better alterative to use Steam OS. I mean if the device still works and is perfectly useable, then why not ?

Four_Fingers · February 2

Microsoft ended support for Win 7 keys to upgrade sadly.
https://devicepartner.microsoft.com/en-us/communications/comm-windows-ends-installation-path-for-free-windows-7-8-upgrade

Tommy_The_Gun · February 2

Four_Fingers wrote: »

Microsoft ended support for Win 7 keys to upgrade sadly.

I might be wrong, but I have read somewhere that older windows 10 builds still do accept win 7 & 8 keys. So if you can download an older Windows 10.iso and make a bootable USB with that - you should still be able to perform a free upgrade. Then of course you can update Win 10 to newest version.

Four_Fingers · February 2

Easier just get a legit Win10 key. imho
Soon we can worry about Win12, gotta love Microsoft. lol

Nihilr · February 2

Ok so to basically keep the thread on topic:

We can play on Windows 7 (theoretically) but it will eventually stop working for us at some point.

Spread the word to guildies, friends, and zonechat.

Kavreiss · February 2

option a. LInux. best option. certainly almost surely works with your hardware though there could be some things it might not, most things even newer pcs are supported but esp old hardware

option b. buy windows 10 key for 20$ off the internet. many legit sources.

opton c. try tiny 11. it's a stripped down version of windows 11 and it works well enough to run steam epic and eso. ask me how i know. dont put you bank account on it. but for playing games yeah sure,

Seravi · February 2

I feel your pain. I left the game a year ago because on my WIN 7 machine, the new security features would make my desktop reset every time I started or stopped ESO. It was such a pain so I stopped. My husband did build me another system that I have been using since Sept of 2023.

The reboot issues were fixed but only for WIN 10 and WIN 11. They could not fix WIN7 due to some code. I don't have the issue now on WIN 10 and I am super glad to be back. We didn't want to build one so soon either but Steam stopped WIN 7 support as well so if I wanted to play anything I had, I needed a new system.

New System:

CPU: intel i9-13900K with EKWB LGA 1700 ILM Replacement Kit
Motherboard: MSI Pro Z790-A WiFi
GPU: Asus GeForce RTX 4090 TUF Gaming OC 24G
RAM: 64GB Corsair Dominator DDR5-6000 CL30
Hard Drive: (2) Samsung 990 Pro NVMe, 1TB and 2TB
Operating System: Windows 10
Case: Lian Li V3000 Plus

Cooling

(3) Loops

CPU: EK Quantum Velocity² Nickel/Plexi
GPU: OptimusPC Signature V2 4090 GPU Block
NVMe Cards: AlphaCool HDX Apex Acrylic aRGB blocks

radiostar · February 2

Time to build a new computer using Win11 Pro.
At least we can get parts on sale at Amazon

karthrag_inak · February 2

But of course khajiit has to limit what he puts in his house so that ESO can still run on PS3 plugged into potato battery.

Sakiri · February 3

lillybit wrote: »

WhosTheFancyOneNow wrote: »

Install LInux! Eso runs great on linux

Wait, there's something it runs great on??

Yup. I don't drop under 100 fps on ultra on my Linux setup.

ZOS_Hadeostry · February 3

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's about PC platform.

Thank you for your understanding

Four_Fingers · February 3

karthrag_inak wrote: »

But of course khajiit has to limit what he puts in his house so that ESO can still run on PS3 plugged into potato battery.

ESO never ran on a PS3.

Kavreiss · February 4

Sakiri wrote: »

lillybit wrote: »

WhosTheFancyOneNow wrote: »

Install LInux! Eso runs great on linux

Wait, there's something it runs great on??

Yup. I don't drop under 100 fps on ultra on my Linux setup.

Linux has great free software drivers for amd cards and proprietary ones for nvidia. intel has always provided free drivers. Nvidia is even working on free and open source driver for linux these days. Seam with proton or lutris with proton-ge should take care of most games.

AlterBlika · February 4

Nihilr wrote: »

* "Just install Windows 10!" Nope, Windows 10 loses support from Microsoft soon also.

So what? Games would still support it a decent amount of time

Braggar · February 16

Windows 12 is coming. 'Maybe' better as 11? Maybe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQGr6aqXclI