First, DWM issues of Windows 7, which was mostly fixed by closing the explorer.exe. Then the frame rate and DirectDraw issues of Windows 8

Ironically, Windows 8 fixes the color palette problem of Vista and Win7 caused by explorer.exe.

Azarien wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:10:

First, DWM issues of Windows 7, which was mostly fixed by closing the explorer.exe. Then the frame rate and DirectDraw issues of Windows 8

Ironically, Windows 8 fixes the color palette problem of Vista and Win7 caused by explorer.exe.

Yes, plus the DWM compositor isn't turned off since Windows 8 when an overlay is supplied on DirectDraw.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-04-24, 09:41:

On various contexts over years, the compatibility of Windows 7+ OS was questioned.

First, DWM issues of Windows 7, which was mostly fixed by closing the explorer.exe. Then the frame rate and DirectDraw issues of Windows 8. Then the problem translated to Windows 10 and the older forums have a lot of similar reports on Win10 and Win8. At the same time some types of DRM broke on Windows 10 rendering many other games unplayable. Some issue also came up due to the Game Bar optimisations.

It is quite some time now, and looking at most of the issues back then, they seem to have been fixed by MS or addressed in some other form. What's the current status of this game incompatibility issue? What games that used to work on an older Windows NT version, doesn't work anymore now?

I was actually asking myself this question just now. I have a Windows 7 laptop from 2012 that I installed Windows XP on but I want to dual boot a more modern OS but I'm not sure which one. Windows 7 is a much better OS in terms of how it feels to work and will be snappier + still have some extra support for older games but Windows 10 still supports Steam and will have better support for modern hardware. Windows 8 I won't even entertain and Windows 11 is not supported.