Discontinuing support for older versions of Windows

the people running those cards aren't running Win 7.

10 years in which they only made win7 and only very recently...seeing as vista can't be considered at all...so age in this case doesn't show much.

If anything, older OSes are more friendly towards monitoring software - it is just easier to hook stuff, so that is unlikely.

But I am quite interested in what those features actually are. Improved security seems like a good guess.

Frankly if in 2012 you can't run Windows 7, you shouldn't expect any AAA title to work on your PC.

XP has been around for more than 10 years already. I don't think you can even get free technical support for XP from Microsoft anymore as XP is in Extended Support now.

In another 2 more years XP will not be supported by Microsoft at all, meaning no more security patches, etc. This means if there are any newly discovered security holes, your computer would be open to all kinds of attacks that exploit those holes. You would be on your own.

Running it with win 7 professional (service pack 1, 64 bit) in compatibility mode for windows xp like i do for system shock 2. But yes, you're completely right. It's cheaper to run it in a separate box or multi-boot.

I'm amazed even that many people still play GW on those old OS's. XP I can understand...but 98 and ME? O_O

http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/
This is but one example, and it's going to get far more common. You cannot guarantee that future titles will have dx9 support. You also sacrifice a ton of features by using xp, namely the lack of 64 bit support. No 64 bit xp does not count. It's a horror story waiting to be written if you want drivers. XP is serviceable for the moment, but even corporate environments are drifting away from it.

I had ME on my old laptop...loved the dang thing...went kicking and screaming to xp, where I will stay since I HATE vista and 7 (and yes, we have them on one laptop that my hubby uses for work--I hear such profanities when he uses it!)....have NO intentions of changing off xp (heck my laptop is still sp1!..so it wont be able to play gw2, ah shucks, since it can barely play eton anyways.--and no I wont upgrade).


(not a fan of changing things--hate it when the bank gets taken over and changes its name ---)

i was only talking about 95, 98, me.

My last PC (which my daughter still plays GW on) was originally set up with Vista but I actually rolled it back to XP and it runs like lightning comparatively. Hopefully, while not "supported" GW will continue to work on that computer.

I've been able to run that thing on both Vista and Win7 in compatibility mode, without any sort of Virtual PC.

Though there were a few crashes... maybe I should look into this background sky files thingy nedm mentioned.

This doesn't look like the case. The versions they're phasing out are all the non-NT-kernel 32-bit versions of Windows (16-bit, i.e. 3.1 and older, obviously was never supported to start with). This most likely indicates they want to use some APIs that are only available in NT-kernel versions of Windows (NT4, 2000, XP and onwards). That would mean the game probably wouldn't even start in any of the 9x OSes.

I've been running Windows 7 on a laptop with an X1250 for years. Its requirements are actually fairly light (as they should be, it's an OS - not a video game).

If you bought it with Vista pre-installed it was probably slow because all retailers load it with junkware that slows everything down.

Same here, my ultraportable 11.6" laptop runs on a low consumption Athlon L110. The GPU is an integrated X1270. Windows 7 runs just fine, even with Aero turned on.

Not sure wether dropping support constitutes a breach of contract. Software licences usually include clauses about continued support and the possible requirement of upgrades in case of additions and updates to the software.

Software is provided as-is and you're licensed to use it as long as the software house allows you to. They usually take limited or no responsibility at all if changes over time to the software break it for you.

From the GW User Agreement:

I just wanted to make it clear that past June 14, Guild Wars will actually no longer work on these systems.

It is just not going to happen. I just can't see Microsoft supporting IBM DOS 1.0, I mean comon, how many security patches they need to maintain to support ALL of their OSes. I think all their staff would be too busy to come up with any new products then and their technology would stand still.

No software company, in their right minds, would do that. After Aug 2014, XP would not be supported anymore.

At the risk of sounding philosophical, change is the only constant in this universe. As long as we still live in this same universe, we would have to change regardless of whether we like it or not.

Well, the maximum extent would be the retail price of a GW game. Go ask a lawyer what their hourly rate for a lawsuit against a large corporation is and I think you will find the upgrade to Windows 2000 or later to be much more palatable.

That's SOP for any product that doesn't perform to specifications, of course they will*.

*unless they get bought out by Sony.

wow....I certianly hope you dont expect that .x% to buy gw2 (even though most of them dont have computers that meet the requirement---)...I would not upgrade JUST to play a video game.