Kicad 6 for windows 7

[nikifena]

Hi group.
Is there any way how to use the new Kicad 6 with windows 7?
I don't want to switch to a new windows version.

Thanks

[jpanhalt]

Have you considered Eagle7.x?  Runs great on WIN7.

[nikifena]

Eagle is not free.

[themadhippy]

virtual machine running win 10 on win 7?Although its a bit sledge hammer and nut

[nikifena]

Yes, using a virtual machine can do the job, but I was thinking is it possible to run somehow without that. Of course Win8 is still supported, but I want to keep my PC running on Win7 for now. I'm happy with that version of the OS.

[MarkF]

I was going to take another look at KiCad a few weeks ago but found that they no longer supported Win 7. 
I didn't think much of it several years ago when I first looked at it. 
It seems real early for KiCad to drop Win 7 support.

Long story short, I continue to use DipTrace. 
And DipTrace still supports Windows back to the XP version!

[james_s]

I was annoyed by this too, so for now I've stayed on an older version of KiCad, it does everything I need it to anyway. Long term solution I'll use it on one of my Linux machines. Win8 was bad, Win10 fixed a few things and broke a lot more things, Win11 did the same. I see no evidence of Microsoft producing a viable OS for me in the foreseeable future.

[Fredderic]

So what was the last version that worked on Win7?

[nikifena]

I believe KiCad 6 and below work with win7

[JohanH]

virtual machine running win 10 on win 7?Although its a bit sledge hammer and nut

Much better to run Linux in virtual machine then.

[james_s]

I had a virtual Win10 machine on my Win7 laptop for a while but every time I started the damn thing up it would have to spend an hour updating so I eventually quit using it.

[MarkF]

I believe KiCad 6 and below work with win7

They DON'T even keep old binaries for download?   

KiCad has really left a sour taste in my mouth!   
Never again will I look at KiCad!

[james_s]

They DON'T even keep old binaries for download?   

KiCad has really left a sour taste in my mouth!   
Never again will I look at KiCad!

Who said that? Did you even look?

https://downloads.kicad.org/kicad/windows/explore/stable

[JohanH]

They DON'T even keep old binaries for download?   

KiCad has really left a sour taste in my mouth!   
Never again will I look at KiCad!

It's open source, so you could compile an ancient version on some ancient hardware, if you so like. If they keep binaries available, that's just because they are nice, they are not obliged to.     

[Doctorandus_P]

I believe KiCad 6 and below work with win7

They DON'T even keep old binaries for download?   

KiCad has really left a sour taste in my mouth!   
Never again will I look at KiCad!

Seems like a wise decision, probably the best you've made in years.

More intelligent people are probably able to click on the "previous versions" on the download part of the KiCad website and then choose between some 50+ versions going back more then 3 years all the way to the pretty ancient KiCad V4.0.2
https://downloads.kicad.org/kicad/windows/explore/stable

[eugene]

So why exactly doesn't V6 run on Win7? Seems I've heard the discussion. Something to do with Python? I wouldn't be too surprised if it were possible to make it work, but the developers understandably have other priorities.

[MarkF]

I believe KiCad 6 and below work with win7

They DON'T even keep old binaries for download?   

KiCad has really left a sour taste in my mouth!   
Never again will I look at KiCad!

Seems like a wise decision, probably the best you've made in years.

More intelligent people are probably able to click on the "previous versions" on the download part of the KiCad website and then choose between some 50+ versions going back more then 3 years all the way to the pretty ancient KiCad V4.0.2
https://downloads.kicad.org/kicad/windows/explore/stable

I looked at the KiCad download page several times and didn't see the "Previous Versions" link.
A honest mistake.
And NO, I'm not going to setup the development environment to build KiCad.

There's NO REASON for personal attacks! 
Welcome to my 'black list':  Doctorandus_P.   
One of the very few to have that honor....

[Whales]

The Kicad website simply says its "unsupported" on Win7 and that this means they don't test it on Win7.  Has anyone tested it to see?  What happens when you try?

Specific and detailed errors are useful, they may point to dependencies on specific dlls.  I believe WinXP has community projects to bring compatibility layers for common dlls from newer versions, so I presume Win7 will be the same.

[james_s]

The Kicad website simply says its "unsupported" on Win7 and that this means they don't test it on Win7.  Has anyone tested it to see?  What happens when you try?

Specific and detailed errors are useful, they may point to dependencies on specific dlls.  I believe WinXP has community projects to bring compatibility layers for common dlls from newer versions, so I presume Win7 will be the same.

IIRC it somehow relies on Python, and the latest versions of Python refuse to install on Windows 7, I have no idea why, probably some bullshit fake dependency.

[nikifena]

Yes, I think it's related to the new Python version

[ebastler]

Never again will I look at KiCad!

Welcome to my 'black list':  Doctorandus_P.   

You are a rapid maker of sweeping decisions, man...

[themadhippy]

might be worth a look  a https://www.eevblog.com/forum/kicad/kicad-6-is-coming!/msg3911564/#msg3911564