Drop support of Windows Vista and Windows 7

[vstinner]

BPO	32592
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @pfmoore, @pitrou, @tjguk, @ambv, @zware, @eryksun, @zooba, @izbyshev, @ZackerySpytz, @CAM-Gerlach, @Fidget-Spinner
PRs	[WIP] bpo-32592: Drop support for Windows Vista #5231 bpo-32592: Remove Vista code from os.cpu_count() #11457 bpo-32592: Remove Vista code from os.cpu_count() #11457 bpo-32592: Remove Vista code from os.cpu_count() #11457 bpo-32592: Set Windows 8 as the minimum required version for API support #15951 bpo-32592: Fix "Using Python on Windows" Document. #22586 bpo-42972: Fix GC assertion error in _winapi by untracking Overlapped earlier #26429

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2022-03-21.20:38:56.872>
created_at = <Date 2018-01-18.09:37:18.007>
labels = ['type-feature', '3.10', 'OS-windows']
title = 'Drop support of Windows Vista and Windows 7'
updated_at = <Date 2022-03-21.20:38:56.871>
user = 'https://github.com/vstinner'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2022-03-21.20:38:56.871>
actor = 'steve.dower'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2022-03-21.20:38:56.872>
closer = 'steve.dower'
components = ['Windows']
creation = <Date 2018-01-18.09:37:18.007>
creator = 'vstinner'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 32592
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 44.0
messages = ['310227', '310233', '310234', '310296', '310297', '310303', '310308', '318103', '333160', '333161', '333186', '333187', '341393', '341534', '341535', '341612', '342041', '351882', '351965', '352476', '352502', '353307', '353308', '353312', '353328', '363348', '363352', '363356', '364793', '364798', '364899', '388700', '388703', '388705', '389225', '389377', '389378', '389385', '389398', '389413', '389445', '389449', '389460', '389476']
nosy_count = 15.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'paul.moore', 'pitrou', 'tim.golden', 'lukasz.langa', 'python-dev', 'zach.ware', 'eryksun', 'steve.dower', 'izbyshev', 'ZackerySpytz', 'CAM-Gerlach', 'kj', 'DMI-1407', 'veso266']
pr_nums = ['5231', '11457', '11457', '11457', '15951', '22586', '26429']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue32592'
versions = ['Python 3.10']

[vstinner]

https://docs.python.org/dev/using/windows.html#supported-versions

"As specified in PEP-11, a Python release only supports a Windows platform while Microsoft considers the platform under extended support. This means that Python 3.7 supports Windows Vista and newer. If you require Windows XP support then please install Python 3.4."

But Windows Vista extended supported already ended last year, in April 2017.

Attached PR removes code to support Windows Vista.

[zooba]

The only changes necessary in the installer should be in PythonBootstrapperApplication.cpp to make it an error when run on pre-Win7 OS. The pattern is already there, and the string references are in Tools/msi/bundle/Default.wxl

If you don't get to it, reassign the bug to me once you've merged the first part and I'll look at the installer.

[vstinner]

If you don't get to it, reassign the bug to me once you've merged the first part and I'll look at the installer.

I like that :-) Will me. Right now, my PR doesn't compile, I broke something and I don't understand the error.

[terryjreedy]

I believe that PEP-11 originally said, or should have said "3.6 supports Windows Vista and newer." I believe 3.5 supports XP, so it should be "please install Python 3.5".

[zware]

3.4 was the last version to support XP.

[vstinner]

Terry: see my notes about platforms suported by Python.
http://vstinner.readthedocs.io/cpython.html#supported-platforms

The PEP-11 doesn't want to have an explicit list of supported Windows versions, but I'm unable to *guess* which Windows version is supported by which Python version, so I wrote my own doc...

[terryjreedy]

I personally think it was a mistake to stop being explicit about Windows support in PEP-11. The rationale was to avoid having to update it. But it is updated for other systems; an explicit list is needed somewhere (as illustrated by my memory lapse; and PEP-11 is the most obvious and discoverable place.

[vstinner]

I failed to fix failures on my PR. It's now too late for Python 3.7.

If someone is interested to drop Vista support from Python 3.8, I suggest to open a new issue instead.

[vstinner]

Hello 2018, I reopen the issue and change the version to Python 3.8.