[RFC] Drop Windows 7 support

[FabianLars]

We all know it's coming and at least as far as i am concerned it was planned for v3. Now that we're rushing v3 for gtk4 i'm not sure sure anymore. I'll still put this into the v3 tracking board for now but we can move it into v4 later if we prefer.

For community members, please share your opinions! If you're fine with dropping Windows 7 support a 👍 reaction is enough, if you want/need Windows 7 support, we'd appreciate hearing more about your use-case (plus a 👎 reaction) :)

[exbit]

I am in need of windows 7 support. But at the moment I can't even run version 2 of Tauri on Windows SP1. The build runs successfully, but when I run it on Windows 7 I always get an error: 0xc0000005. Is there a detailed instruction on how to properly make a build for Windows 7?

[✔] Environment
    - OS: Windows 10.0.26100 x86_64 (X64)
    ✔ WebView2: 131.0.2903.146
    ✔ MSVC:
        - Visual Studio Community 2019
        - Visual Studio Enterprise 2022
    ✔ rustc: 1.86.0-nightly (bf1b174e7 2025-01-28)
    ✔ cargo: 1.86.0-nightly (cecde95c1 2025-01-24)
    ✔ rustup: 1.27.1 (54dd3d00f 2024-04-24)
    ✔ Rust toolchain: nightly-i686-pc-windows-msvc (default)
    - node: 23.6.0
    - pnpm: 9.15.4
    - yarn: 1.22.22
    - npm: 10.9.2
    - bun: 1.2.0

[-] Packages
    - tauri 🦀: 2.2.5
    - tauri-build 🦀: 2.0.5
    - wry 🦀: 0.48.1
    - tao 🦀: 0.31.1
    - tauri-cli 🦀: 2.2.5
    - @tauri-apps/api : 2.2.0
    - @tauri-apps/cli : 2.2.7

[-] Plugins
    - tauri-plugin-opener 🦀: 2.2.5
    - @tauri-apps/plugin-opener : 2.2.5

[-] App
    - build-type: bundle
    - CSP: unset
    - frontendDist: ../dist
    - devUrl: http://localhost:1420/
    - framework: Vue.js
    - bundler: Vite

[FabianLars]

@exbit You need to build the app with rust 1.77.2 (may require a few cargo update commands to make all crates build). If this doesn't help, please open a seperate issue or discussion.

[ahqsoftwares]

Now that we're rushing v3 for gtk4 i'm not sure

Exactly what does that mean? I am a little bit out of the loop 😅

[FabianLars]

gtk3-rs was unmaintained for 2 years and nobody cared. Now there's an Advisory for an old unsoundness issue (that seemingly never caused any problems in tauri) and everyone loses their shit. A fix in gtk3-rs seems to be unlikely so we'll accelerate the switch to gtk4, minimizing the breaking changes between tauri v2 and v3 so hopefully everyone updates quickly so we can kill v2 asap afterwards. (gtk4 was always planned for tauri v3, just not this quickly - the distro support should be roughly the same as webkitgtk4.1 in v2). For further questions, please move to one of those issues https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/issues?q=sort%3Aupdated-desc%20is%3Aissue%20is%3Aopen%20gtk4 (trying my best to keep this one on-topic lol)

[exbit]

@FabianLars In the Tauri 2 documentation https://tauri.app/distribute/windows-installer/#supporting-windows-7 it says that there is support for Windows 7, but this is a lie. I spent a lot of time to check this. I downgraded rust to 1.77.2, but many Tauri 2 packages require rust version 1.7.8 minimum, and Windows 7 requires rust version 1.77.2 maximum. I tried to downgrade packages, but it leads to endless: cargo update -p xxxx x.x.x

I suggest you remove the information about Windows 7 support from the Tauri 2 documentation. Or write instructions how to build Tauri 2 on Windows 7.

Who has built Tauri 2 on Windows 7?

[FabianLars]

We use 1.77.2 in CI without major issues for example https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/blob/dev/.github/workflows/test-core.yml
Once a while i talk with app devs about this as well 🤷

So far it was only one or two cargo update commands but if it's more for you'd i'd recommend to set your project's rust-version to 1.77.2 and use the new version aware resolver from cargo 1.84: https://blog.rust-lang.org/2025/01/09/Rust-1.84.0.html#cargo-considers-rust-versions-for-dependency-version-selection which we use for tauri v1's CI which is still stuck on 1.60 / 1.61 https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/pull/12401/files

Edit: Just tried it without the new resolver:
0) rustup default 1.77.2-msvc

1. pnpm create tauri-app
2. cd project/src-tauri
3. cargo update -p cargo_metadata --precise 0.19.0
4. cargo update -p cargo-platform --precise 0.1.8
5. pnpm tauri dev (and other commands) works...

---

But yes, this is something we need to have in mind here as well, not only did Microsoft, Rust, WebView2 drop support for Windows 7, the crates are doing it as well so it will get harder and harder to maintain that MSRV.

[exbit]

I take it back. Thank you, about your instructions I got it working. I just joined your community and don't have enough experience. Maybe this should be added to the documentation?

I understand the reasons for not supporting older OS. But there are cases when you need to create software for already existing programs that support running on older OS. This is not my whim, but requirements. In this case we have to choose between available frameworks. Support for old OS is a headache, but it's also a plus for the framework.

@FabianLars What are the compromises to leave support for Windows 7? I don't need gtk4 support, for example.

[FabianLars]

What are the compromises to leave support for Windows 7?

Apart from requiring (maintenance) resources that we don't have? It forces us, or will force us, to hold back dependency updates (potentially some that fix CVEs etc) and having to keep compatibility with chromium/webview2 v109 (we're at 132 btw) also actively prevents us from implementing new features and fixing some bugs because not all things can be done in a backwards compatible way (for example switching the hosting mode)

It's 2025 and i'm starting to believe that people who use or target windows 7 don't deserve access to the latest frameworks / framework versions, especially one that has security as its number 1 priority. At some point you just have to let it die or live with the consequences of not doing so.
But that's only my opinion which is why this is an open issue and not just a decision we make behind the scenes.

[bastiankistner]

I might be wrong but according to a quick search on Google, Windows 7 hasn’t been supported with any updates since 2020?

Why should the vendor itself stop supporting their own product but tauri still needs to support it? I’m actually very surprised that tauri reaches back thus far. If that’s any reason for a lack of security or a block of features, support should immediately be stopped, in my opinion.

If it’s ok for anyone to still rely on an unmaintained operating system, it should certainly be ok to rely on an outdated tauri version and provide everyone else with today’s features and level of security that most recent browser versions have to offer.