r/windows • u/Breath-Present • Feb 12 '26
App 7-Zip released new version today, it still runs on Win2000
When many programs are dropping support for Win7 SP1, this guy still maintain compatibility for 26 years old Windows. Mad respect.
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u/feelthecernburn Feb 12 '26
7 zip is so GOATED software. A pinnacle of performance that all software should strive to match
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u/_HermineStranger_ Feb 12 '26
When in uninstalled it a couple of months ago 7zip didn't even support the new windows 11 context menu.
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u/Mario583a Feb 12 '26
I recall the dev is still on Windows 10 because
- He’ll adopt new Windows features “when he feels like it”
- He’s not in a rush to follow Microsoft’s UI trends
- He might still be using Windows 10 or even older internally
It it true that [Compress to ...] has a 7z file, yet, i think Igor wants to implement his own way.
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u/Breath-Present Feb 13 '26
Win11 C.M. is hostile to old-schooled Win32 developer. I totally understand why 7-Zip didn't support it.
First, you'd need to implement IExplorerCommand. Still fine by its own. Then, you'd need to digital-sign your DLL with PAID cert, or persuade your user to install your self-sign cert. Good luck doing the latter. Then, create sparse package MSIX and register it with WinRT API. Some apps call PowerShell to do the latter as it's convoluted to do it in a classic C/C++ project.
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Feb 12 '26
Adding an app to the new context menu requires it to be signed. He can't be bothered to do that
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u/feelthecernburn Feb 12 '26
That's true, but the new context menu is trash. I never noticed because I don't have it enabled
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u/WaytoomanyUIDs Feb 12 '26
How do you disable it? It annoys the piss out of me
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u/snake785 Feb 12 '26
I'm not entirely sure how to make it the default behaviour (likely through a registry edit that gets reverted after some updates), but you can hold down ctrl or shift while right clicking to show the legacy context menu right away.
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u/pfmiller0 Feb 12 '26
New-Item -Path "HKCU:\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" -Name "(default)" -3
u/poke23658 Feb 13 '26
See option 1 in this article. I saved the .reg file and always apply it on any computer I work on:
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/disable-show-more-options-context-menu-in-windows-11.1589/
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u/_HermineStranger_ Feb 12 '26
Good for you that you're not affected. For me personally I don't care if a software maintains compatibility with an OS released before I was born but doesn't even support the standard native context menu of the current windows versionen.
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u/derperofworlds1 Feb 13 '26
The new win11 context menu only exists to be upgraded back to the windows 10 version via regedit
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u/mallardtheduck Feb 12 '26
And if you need to run it on anything older, there's a backport of version 24 which has a build for MS-DOS and a Win32 build for Windows 95 and NT 3.5 (and later).
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u/poke23658 Feb 12 '26
I like 7-zip much more than Winrar, but sometimes I have to use Winrar if I have a bunch of .R files. 7-Zip says the resulting video file is corrupted, Winrar doesn’t.
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u/kcajjones86 Feb 13 '26
Turns out if you're your own boss and there's no corporate bullshit then you can do things that are good, even when you're doing it for free! Open source FTW!
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u/al3x_7788 Feb 12 '26
As long as the software can be understood by an OS and there's little to no security risks, there's literally zero reasons to simply drop support for said OS, just for the sake of "moving on".
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u/WaytoomanyUIDs Feb 12 '26
More of a case of using features in newer version of MSVC, but if you dont need them, why not continue to support older versions.
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u/JouniFlemming Uninstalr Developer Feb 16 '26
I wish it rather had dark mode UI support than Windows 2000 support.
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u/Realistic-Network786 Windows 8 Feb 19 '26
I am actually suprised... The latest version of 7-zip on a system that is 26 years old is kinda cool!
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u/vooze Feb 12 '26
Devs should drop support for Windows 7, no reason to run EOL software.
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u/Hrmerder Feb 12 '26
You might be hella surprised at how many systems still run like windows 3.1
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u/ListenBeforeSpeaking Feb 12 '26
I know of a system running DOS 5.0 that runs some ancient heavy duty equipment that is so big and so difficult to replace that people just pray it keeps going.
Of course, there’s no internet risk there at least.
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u/WaytoomanyUIDs Feb 12 '26
The software could probably use FreeDOS. But of course it probably needs a specialised interface card that fits in an ISA slot. I think theres ha couple of specialised manufacturers who still make motherboards with ISA slots for industrial stuff?
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u/Hrmerder Feb 12 '26
Dude is GOAT