Hello everyone!
Last week, we deployed version 2023.14 of the Paradox Game Launcher. With this version we are no longer supporting Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. We wanted to give you all some more information on how this decision came about and what it means for those of you still using older Windows OS versions.
The above change is motivated by two main reasons:
What does it mean for your experience?
Can I still use an older version of the launcher that is compatible with Windows 7, 8 or 8.1?
Some final information:
If you have any questions regarding the above, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll do our best to answer.
Last week, we deployed version 2023.14 of the Paradox Game Launcher. With this version we are no longer supporting Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. We wanted to give you all some more information on how this decision came about and what it means for those of you still using older Windows OS versions.
The above change is motivated by two main reasons:
- Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 no longer receive paid security updates as of January 2023, and are therefore more prone to being affected by malware. That introduces security risks for the development of the Launcher that have the potential to put both our systems and those of our players at an unnecessary risk.
- Steam will be pulling support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 in January 2024, and so it’s no longer valid for us to support the Launcher on these systems.
What does it mean for your experience?
- Since we will no longer support the Launcher for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, it means that the future versions of our Launcher will *not* run under these old OSes.
- Any launcher update beyond that point will cause it to stop working on above systems, and will, in turn, make it not possible to launch our games. Some of you who had their launchers update are likely experiencing that already.
Can I still use an older version of the launcher that is compatible with Windows 7, 8 or 8.1?
- While we don’t support version rollbacks with our Launcher, you can use a manual workaround:
- In order to run an older version of the launcher, the easiest way to do it is to rename the folder of the version you want to keep (in this case %LocalAppData%\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2023.13.1) to instead be named launcher-v2.2099.99. This will cause it to be chosen as the latest version. Launcher updates should subsequently fail - Which is probably what you want.
- You can download the folder with Version 2023.13 installer that is still compatible, attached to this message. Install it and rename the folder as per instructions above.
Some final information:
- We strongly recommend you consider doing the free OS update to supported Windows versions, like Windows 10 or 11. Both for Launcher compatibility and personal security.
- In the coming weeks, we’ll update minimal requirements for our games and DLCs on our storefronts, to reflect this change.
- Going forward, we’ll do our best to communicate changes like that ahead of time with you all. If any OS support is stopped for our Launcher in the future, we’ll do our best to communicate it ahead of time and we intend to introduce a feature to the Launcher which will freeze automatic updates on systems it no longer supports.
If you have any questions regarding the above, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll do our best to answer.
Last edited:
- 4
- 2
