Useful electronics programs that work on Win7 but not on Win10

[Cloud]

Are they any useful electronics programs that still haven't been updated to work on windows 10?

[JPortici]

By the title of the thread i would have assumed you HAD such a list.

Since you are asking, why don't you ask directly which electronic programs you are using, that you fear you won't be able to use anymore if you upgrade to windows 10?
-I've had no issues yet with various CADs and simulators-

[Zero999]

I have no idea.

Why are you asking? Are you considering upgrading to Windows 10 and are worried some of the programs you currently use won't work?

I use LTSpice, at home under Linux/WINE, at work under Windows 7 and occasionally at my parent's house on their PC, which runs Windows 10. I've found LTSpice performs worse under Windows 10, than any other system. It's even more stable under Linux/WINE, although it does crash occasionally.

I occasionally use Proteus at work, again under Windows 7, but not at home: I haven't done any hobby PCBs for ages and would probably use KiCAD or stay at work and do it after hours using Proteus if needs be.

My advice is don't bother with Windows 10. Migrate to Linux if you can. It's now a perfectly viable desktop OS and most problems can be easily resolved, without reinstalling it. Last night I had a problem logging in to MATE desktop after a crash: I got the "could not update .ICEauthority" when logging on. At first I thought I'd needed to reinstall, but I got out my phone, Googled the error and found a fix in five minutes: just delete the .ICEauthority file, so I renamed it, using the command like and was able to log into the desktop with no  problems. This is the first such problem I've had in nearly three years of using Linux as my primary OS and it was easily fixed.

[Cloud]

We are being threatened with windows 10 upgrade but I am strongly against it so I am looking which programs I could use as bias to not upgrading 
Linux is not applicable since my work is mostly done in Altium. I was hoping that some old programs like filter lab wouldn't work but it works perfectly on W10
I'll do comparison in LTSpice between W7 and W10

[SiliconWizard]

Well, many CAD/EDA programs will be unsupported on Windows 10 if you haven't updated them in a while (updating can be costly). Doesn't mean they won't work. But the perspective of using unsupported software in a professional setting is often a good motivator. If you are in such a situation, just make it clear to your management with the vendor's statement that it's not supported, then get a quote for upgrading your software, and watch the reaction.

As for Altium, AD is officially supported on Windows 10 since version 15 so, you'd have to use a pretty old version to use that as an argument.

But again, do not let the fact that "it works" on Windows 10 deter you: look for official statements from software vendors, and use that.

[Ampera]

My advice is don't bother with Windows 10. Migrate to Linux if you can. It's now a perfectly viable desktop OS and most problems can be easily resolved, without reinstalling it. Last night I had a problem logging in to MATE desktop after a crash: I got the "could not update .ICEauthority" when logging on. At first I thought I'd needed to reinstall, but I got out my phone, Googled the error and found a fix in five minutes: just delete the .ICEauthority file, so I renamed it, using the command like and was able to log into the desktop with no  problems. This is the first such problem I've had in nearly three years of using Linux as my primary OS and it was easily fixed.

Definitely. Also check if the program doesn't run under Proton, as there are now a significant number of games that didn't run on Wine that now run flawlessly on Proton, so high end graphical stuff like CAD software might work under Proton.
I adopted Linux as a primary operating system, probably almost a year ago, and for me at least, I've found that I've rarely ever had a problem I couldn't fix with just looking it up.

What I will say if you aren't prepared to learn something about how Linux works and is arranged, then you won't get the experience that I nor many other people advertise, and you'll end up like a couple of people on the AfterNET fan channel who might just have trouble installing something as simple as VICE.

[dnwheeler]

I'm not aware of any standard desktop apps that work on Windows 7 but not on Windows 10 (I've been running Windows 10 as my sole OS since it was in preview). The only issues would be apps that use custom device drivers, as Windows 10 has significantly increased the security requirements for kernel-mode drivers.

[PwrElectronics]

At my employer, we used a Mentor Graphics program for schematic capture and PCB layout.  Individual EE's (like me) have the schematic capture part but only the layout folks have the PCB layout parts.  This was recently upgraded to DXdesigner.  Lots of teething issues in the transition of that.

My last new design scratch project was in 2015 with a rev in 2017.  I got my most recent company issue computer in Jan 2018 and it had Win7 on it.  But in all of '18 I had no reason to use Mentor Graphics.  December of '18 they were pushing out Win10 to the department and I elected to do it over the 1 week shut down over the holidays as otherwise a 2-4hr lockout of the computer that could happen at some random time.

Then, early February a memo comes out that they stopped pushing out Win10 to the department since not compatible with DXdesigner?  I've not tried to run it so don't know what the issue is.  Told my boss somewhat in jest that I guess I cannot work on any new or revisions for the time being!

[Gribo]

Older Autodesk apps (MAX 2010 and earlier, Autocad 2010 and earlier) will not work on 10 due to some weird .NET objects being used.

[NiHaoMike]

The forced update thing is problematic for automated test machines, but I think the enterprise version allows the administrator to control the update schedule just like with the previous versions.

[mc172]

We are being threatened with windows 10 upgrade but I am strongly against it

Why? W10 is decent.

[CJay]

We're in the middle of a Win 7 to Win 10 migration project at work and it's going really well so far, there's a few bits of software that aren't compatible but that's because the business hasn't spent the money to upgrade them, other than that, it seems faster, more responsive and it works.

Have to say, the enterprise/corporate versions of Win 10 are a different animal to the home versions (which are hateful), you may be pleasantly surprised.

[Zero999]

We are being threatened with windows 10 upgrade but I am strongly against it

Why? W10 is decent.

Many people here would disagree. I think Windows 10 is horrible and would never install it on my own PC.

[Red Squirrel]

Windows 10 may leak intellectual property given it spies on everything you do, I would bring that up.  They might actually care about that.   

[thm_w]

Windows 10 may leak intellectual property given it spies on everything you do, I would bring that up.  They might actually care about that.

So staying on an old version of windows until its no longer supported and will be full of security issues is clearly the better option then...

Even if that were the case, it is not OPs concern in the slightest, that is for IT to decide.

[Zero999]

Windows 10 may leak intellectual property given it spies on everything you do, I would bring that up.  They might actually care about that.

Microcunt really have gone total retard with Winblow$ 10!

I can understand the add/spyware, which is needed for them to make money, as they can't get enough people to buy their shitware, but what the hell are they don't with the UI? In the past M$ has insisted on a common look and feel across Winblow$ programs, which was seen as an advantage over Linux, but now they've dropped it.  There are the Metro crapps which look totally different to the traditional ones. They can't make their mind up whether they want it to be a desktop or tabled OS. They really need to have two different versions for desktop and tablet use.

[Red Squirrel]

Windows 10 may leak intellectual property given it spies on everything you do, I would bring that up.  They might actually care about that.

So staying on an old version of windows until its no longer supported and will be full of security issues is clearly the better option then...

Even if that were the case, it is not OPs concern in the slightest, that is for IT to decide.

It's behind the corporate firewall/router, just make sure uPNP is disabled and use other proper security practices.  Relying on updates for security has never been a very good model, as there is never an update that is final.  Stuff is always out of date.  When a vulnerability gets patched, it means that vulnerability has existed for many years prior. Proper setup should ensure that it was not exploitable in first place. Ex: not facing the internet directly.

Of course it's best to try to keep stuff up to date, but when the up to date version sucks so much sometimes you have to compromise.  Hopefully MS releases a more business oriented and usable OS at some point when Windows 7 is no longer supported.   Not holding my breath though, they've gone completely off their rocker.

And yeah that UI sucks, I can't stand it.  Too much white and too much wasted space.  I should not have to use scroll bars to use a dialog box (ex: display settings) that back in the day fit fine on a 800x600 screen. 

[mc172]

Well that's because 600x800 is no longer an acceptable screen resolution. My phone has a screen with over double that resolution.

[KE5FX]

Windows 10 may leak intellectual property given it spies on everything you do, I would bring that up.  They might actually care about that.

So staying on an old version of windows until its no longer supported and will be full of security issues is clearly the better option then...

Windows 10 is a "security issue."  What difference does it make if my PC is trashed by a virus or by Windows Update? 

The last virus I got was called happy99.exe, when I accidentally plugged a NIC on a brand new Windows 98 installation into the wrong side of the firewall.  It took about 15 minutes to recover from that.  On the other hand, the last Windows Update patch I installed cost me the better part of a day, spent trying to get my secondary monitor working again. 

The monkeys are running the zoo in Redmond these days.  Everyone who was any good has long since cashed out.

[Red Squirrel]

Well that's because 600x800 is no longer an acceptable screen resolution. My phone has a screen with over double that resolution.

But it's no excuse to make everything bigger for nothing.  The whole idea of bigger resolutions is to have more screen real estate, but they keep making UI elements and dialogs bigger and bigger to the point that you practically need 4k to use windows 10.  The use of space is horribly inefficient in windows 8/10. 

[Mr. Scram]

Windows 7 is on the verge of dying and no sane company is going to migrate to Windows 8.1 at this point in time, only to do it again in 3 years time. Migrating to another OS is expensive and risky as there are more question marks and new software purchases and personell may not cope.

[Mr. Scram]

Windows 10 may leak intellectual property given it spies on everything you do, I would bring that up.  They might actually care about that.

Professional versions of Windows 10 allow you to turn this off, although that's still a matter of trust. As mighty as Microsoft is I don't think it can afford being caught snooping in enterprise environments when explicitly told not to.

[NorthGuy]

Windows 7 is on the verge of dying ...

I don't think so. Still approximately the same market share as W10, which is remarkable since all the new computers come with W10.

I'll never going to use W10. W10 has a screwed up user interface, is very buggy, and you don't have any control of what it's doing. It is now only a matter of time until it starts serving targeted ads.

I'll hang to W7 as long as I can, and then it's Linux. They may, of course, screw up future CPUs/Motherboards so that they only can run Windows, but that's a different question.

[coromonadalix]

I use tons of softwares / scripts  hacks  etc .....   to silence windows 10, but they are a few things left who cant be silenced

The Entreprise version is supposed to be the best to kill almost every telemetry services with registry and policy group ... the others dont.


I run on Win 10 pro for workstation, use  win10 privacy and o&o shutup 10, they do a good job

M$oft  has played us a good trick in declaring windows 10 as a service,  we will never geting back what we had in the ''old and reliable" os'es

Tried a few linux variants,  some of them are very good / fast / light / reliable,  some of them can run windows apps in a vm ...

[Mr. Scram]

I don't think so. Still approximately the same market share as W10, which is remarkable since all the new computers come with W10.

I'll never going to use W10. W10 has a screwed up user interface, is very buggy, and you don't have any control of what it's doing. It is now only a matter of time until it starts serving targeted ads.

I'll hang to W7 as long as I can, and then it's Linux. They may, of course, screw up future CPUs/Motherboards so that they only can run Windows, but that's a different question.

I'm referring to the extended support being dropped in less than a year. Half the arguments that are in favour of Windows 7 now evaporate at that point. Market share is not a good measure of an OS being viable for safe daily use. There will inevitably be people claiming they don't need security updates, but that's a bit like being a computing antivaxer. Windows 7 has 9 months left. After that it's either Windows 8.1 until 2023, Windows 10 or migrating to another OS altogether.