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Supported Windows Versions and Hardware

We try to cater to two different types of users for our pre-built packages:

  • Developers using MSYS2 directly: These users generally prefer the latest software and updates, typically using newer hardware and keeping their Windows operating system updated.
  • End-users of bundled applications: These applications include pre-built packages from the MSYS2 repository, and the users may run very outdated versions of Windows on equally outdated hardware.

In some cases we can't please both groups at the same time, so we have to find compromises.

Current Policy

The GUI Installer: Requires 64-bit Windows 10 / Windows Server 2019.

Msys/Cygwin Packages: Requires 64-bit Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2.

Mingw Packages: Requires 64-bit Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2. Upstream software may impose additional requirements.

Mingw Toolchains: MINGW32/MINGW64 environments allow targeting Windows 7+ still. All others allow targeting Windows 8.1+.

Hardware Requirements: We try to follow the minimum hardware requirements of the oldest Windows versions we support. Upstream software may impose additional requirements.

Resources for Unsupported Windows Versions

We no longer support these configurations, but here's a list of resources that might help you get things running either way.

GUI Installer on Windows 8.1: The last GUI installer version that worked on Windows 8.1 is 2024-01-13. Use the old installer and then use pacman to update.

Windows 7 and 8.0: The last installer version that worked on Windows 7 and 8.0 is 2022-10-28. Switching to msys2-runtime-3.4 should keep the Cygwin parts working. Many Mingw packages will no longer work though (Python for example).

32-bit Windows: The last working archive is available at https://repo.msys2.org/distrib/i686 and there is a community maintained repo at https://github.com/jeremyd2019/msys2-build32.

Changelog

Various changes affecting the supported Windows versions and hardware for both pre-built packages and programs built using our toolchains.

2024-05-07: The GUI installer dropped support for running on Windows 8.1.

2024-05-03: msys2-runtime was updated to Cygwin 3.5 which dropped support for Windows 7 and 8.0 and will no longer run there.

2023-12-13: We will no longer add new 32-bit Mingw packages to the repo unless needed, and will start dropping 32-bit packages without users.

2023-01-15: Dropped active support for Windows 7 and 8.0 in general.

2022-12-26: Default _WIN32_WINNT bumped to Windows 8.1 for UCRT environments. MINGW32/MINGW64 environments still default to Windows 7.

2022-12-16: The GUI installer dropped support for running on Windows 7 and 8.0.

2022-10-18: New minimum hardware requirements for pre-built packages matching the minimum requirements of Windows 8.1 (CPUs from ~2006/7+).

2020-05-17: 32-bit MSYS2 no longer actively supported. Both packages and the installer will no longer be updated.