Hi Everyone 
Is there a way to find System Requirement of each KiCAD version ?
I have only find the last version link : System Requirements
Moved your post from an ancient thread.
No idea but with old versions you will experience bugs that have been fixed. You will not be able to take advantage of all the new features that tutorials talk about. And the older the version the fewer people that will be able to help you because the memory of older versions has faded.
The latest version requires us to use at least Windows 10.
As an example, using Windows XP is enough, more efficient and light weight.
I can run it in a Virtual Machine.
Running Windows 10 in a virtual machine need an expensive computer (very fast with a lot of memory)
Iâm asking why you loose the compatibility with older OS.
There is always the option to run KiCad in Linux, either natively on the hardware or in a virtual machine. 
(I know, not all may be inclined to, but it is a way to get around the requirements and costs of newer Windows versions, and it doesnât have to be an unsurmountable learning curve with modern distributions. I happen to run fedora, under which KiCad works well.)
For Linux users, it is easier to upgrade with the last version but for Windows users, it is more painful.
Using a Linux virtual machine is a solution.
I find it is a shame we canât keep the compatibility with Windows XP.
Why we canât just add a switch case statement :
switch ( OS )
{
// . . .
case "Windows XP":
run_win_XP_code();
break;
case "Windows 7":
run_win_7_code();
break;
case "Windows 10":
run_win_10_code();
break;
default:
run_common_win_code();
}
I hope you are not planning to go into programming. 
TL;DR: doesnât work like that.
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It is a kind of joke !!!
I know it is not as simple as we could expect but this is the idea.
If foundations are well designed, it should be as easy as a LEGO game.
But I would be curious to know all technical constraints which implies why âit doesnât work like thatâ.
Newer software will often rely on newer features in the OS. Just an example, the graphics libraries will depend on features provided by newer graphics card drivers. Therre are lots of other areas. Not just the application itself but also all the libraries it depends on, as well as the toolchain used to build the application.
But you should be able to complie a hello world program to run on ancient machines.
When we depend of lot of things, if only one thing is break in the chain, all is broken. This is the drawback. But we canât do all the work alone, we are not super mens !!!
Keeping all dependencies up to date to work together is a real challenge.
Youâre right, recent driver arenât always available with older OS, especially with Windows series.
But even if there are new features with recent hardware, I donât see
with a program as FreeCAD what are new features that coud not work with older OS.
To draw in 2D, it is always the same way. I can see in Wiki that FreeCAD use the wxWidgets libraries.
Software_that_uses_wxWidgets
wxWidgets seems to keep the compatibility with Windows XP (I already love it for this nice feature)
https://docs.wxwidgets.org/stable/plat_msw_install.html
Concerning the 3D, I think Windows XP should have enough power to show simple component shapes. With a 3D software as Blender, I could more understand the lack of Recent driver compatibility with older OS.
More fundamentally V7 onwards dropped support for 32 bit OS
Although, not well known, it seems Windows XP has a 64-bits version.
If my memory is good, KiCAD v7 must work at least with Windows 10 following the KiCAD requirements. Windows 7 is widely used in 64-bits version. So Iâm asking why also loose the compatibility with Windows 7.
If you search eevblog and old posts here youâll find that this was forced by the loss of support for an up to date version of python in W7 but some people have created an unofficial workaround.
Another important reason for dropping support for old OSes is that developers will have difficulties testing. Even if possible it wastes effort for a dwindling audience. And donât forget, old OSes are unsupported and security risks.
Iâm just a lazy bun of a switch who dislikes having long discussions so Iâll just refer you any of a number of software forums out there where you should be able to find experts who love to write walls of text to explain to you all the reasons why supporting old platforms is a huge pain even if possible for little benefit. Very expensive compared just buying modern hardware.
Good night.
1 Like
Windows 10 launched back in 2015, almost 9 years ago. It goes out of support next year. Eight years is a long time for PC hardware. How do you sensibly work on a machine that should not be connected to the Internet, due to lack of security updates?
I also need to run kicad on my Win-3.1 system, my Osborne 1 running CP/M, and also on my Apple ][ â please advise.
And Iâm still waiting to hear about loading kicad on my rotary phone, but thatâs another thread from the other dayâŚ
sheesh.
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If you feel the need to port it, this is open source. Help is always needed. Otherwise, âtime keeps on slipping, into the futureâŚâ
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I can understand all reasons explained.
I would like to add :
I think using virtual machines offers lot of advantages :
- As the emulated Hardware is well known, often generic and limited, we wonât have to test lot of different Hardware configurations. In these case, there is no need to maintain plenty drivers.
- Security risks are limited by using a virtual machine. You donât need to stay connected to internet. You can communicate with the host via a shared folder.
- You can take some Snapshots. If the machine crashes. It is easy to restore the last âgoodâ state.
About Windows 10, my own experience speaks : The background process known as telemetry eats a lot of cpu ressources each time the computer starts. You canât manage Windows updates in the same manner as previous Windows versions. It is also very intrusive.
For all these reasons, this is not a good choice to use a virtual machine with Windows 10 as Guest.
Iâm asking if Iâm a developer :
Is the time cost is really higher to add some âswitch OS caseâ in the code instead of delete/replace âolderâ code ?
Not sure, if the code is well designed.
Absolutely, guaranteed higher.
It has nothing to do with how âwell designedâ the code is, sorry.
I understand.
I think it would be nice to have the possibility to continue to use older OS in virtual machines.
No need to have internet connections on Virtual Machines. The host with a recent OS is enough.
In these cases, security risk is limited.
I wouldnât have dared to ask to keep the compatibility with MS-DOS 
I hope your rotary phone has a good screen resolution to be compatible with the KiCAD requirements !!!