This increasing trend of Microsoft's to make new version of the OS work only on newer hardware and older versions of the OS only to run on older hardware is becoming a bit of an issue for those of us who still have to support applications back to Win95.

The best workaround I've found so far is to run the older Windows in a virtual machine, usually VirtualBox. It's quite feasible to run older OSs in a VirtualBox on the newer hardware. I'm not so confident about newer OSs in a VirtualBox on older hardware as I've not tried that.

FWIW, I work mostly (90%) on Linux and run other OSs in VirtualBoxes under Linux, whilst a colleague runs Windows10 and runs older Windows and Linux in VirtualBoxes under Win10. He still has to support an application on Win3.11-embedded.

In Windows under Linux, there are complications with USB sharing, which is a nuisance with BiaB and also with some versions of DirectX. I don't know what limitations there are running in a VirtualBox hosted by Windows because I've never done it.

When I was forced to change my Win7 on this machine to Win10, I discovered that MS offered the free upgrade from Win7/8/8.1 for many months after the official deadline. They _may_ do that again.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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