DirectX 11 API Port is on Test Server!

I just hope they can figure it out. Upgrading to windows 10 has already been a PITA, the laptop which should have been the worst to update was the easiest. The other 3 are not as easy, at least not the way I want to do it which is add another drive for 10 and still keep 7 for the stuff I need 7 more (my business).

I am the same. I have stuff on 7 I SIMPLY cannot or will not update to. Too many years of customization. Who knows maybe I am just too old and grumpy. What peeves me off is that EVERYTHING worked flawlessly before I could box up to 6 accounts with NO issues on 4k.
Like I said I just gave up and bought a new SSD and installed Win10 on that and then added back my SSD gaming drive. I now just BOOT to that drive to run EQ on TEST. On live it's not an issue, win7 still works.

Windows 7 stopped getting updates in 2020 and stopped getting security updates at the start of 2023. At some point software will stop supporting it and honestly I am surprised it is still listed as the minimum specs.

The machine I run EQ on is Win 7, and everything else I use it for works perfectly fine and does exactly what I need/want it all to do. No software issues, no hardware issues, no crashes...everything just works.

Upgrading that machine to another operating system just for the sake of playing one game and risking everything else being screwed up is not something I'm willing to do. If they can't get it working for Win 7 machines, then that will simply be the end of EQ for me. I refuse to risk everything else not working just for this game.

Im honestly thinking the same. But right now just trying to make all the machines dual OS. I true box so I have several to update. Right now Im holding off on purchases of the game. I wanted to upgrade 2 of my accts with the sale on NoS but not doing it right now until I have word they have addressed this. It's very sad since I have spent thousands of dollars on this game over the years. Fingers crossed they get it figured out.

So, after scavenging old laptops gathering dust in various family members cupboards and testing them, I can add that the following is working with EQ on Test.

Dell Lattitude E7440 with an Intel i54310u CPU and HD 4400 graphics running Windows 10 Pro.

This laptop is around 10 years old. I added a cheap SATA SSD and another 4GB stick of ram to bring it up to 8GB. No added cost, I took these from machines that wouldn't run EQ Test.

There are plenty of these laptops on Ebay right now around the £90-£100 mark for Buy-it-Now in some sort of refurbished state. Auction prices are much lower.

I empathize with you. You've extracted [likely] thousands of hours of entertainment out of EQ. Would be sad to throw it away over a necessary, required upgrade.

Hope you can reconcile if Win7 winds up not working.

No matter what they are saying I like many others can't get this to work on Win 7 machines. Followed all the steps they suggested as well as a ton of in game settings it does not work currently.

I know I know its old, not supported and cry me a river about buying 10 or a cheapo computer just for EQ. But a lot of us aren't so interested in that and don't feel like repeating this in another year or 2 with 10 when its dropped as supported. Improving a 20 plus year old game is great but not if your old customers suddenly have to spend hundreds or more on new rigs with a few weeks notice if that.

The KEY here is that generally it's NOT the hardware that is affecting us on Win7. IT"S THE OS. Period. End of story. Full stop.

I had NO issues from 14+ years playing EQ at its glory (and all the expansions, changes etc..) on my WIn7 machine (old hardware). Due to the Directx11 upgrade, it seems the ONLY option is to upgrade to Win10 JUST for this game.

Not everyone is willing or capable of going through that process. I did it, I have a work-around while still maintaining my original Win7, by having Win10 installed on a separate drive and just booting to it from BIOS. But again, it sucks when you are FORCED to do that on a game you have invested so much time and $$.
Once again, I thank the Devs for their effort on this issue.

I understand this is a Windows game but I've been playing under Linux for some time and EQ runs fine. I checked the DX11 version on Test and it runs fine too, with a few minor texture bugs that have already been reported by other players and might be fixed in the next Test patch.

In particular for people having trouble with Windows 7, you can at least try booting on a Linux Live USB key, install EQ there and see if it works, it's not that hard to configure (I even have a tutorial ready) and when you're done testing, just remove the USB key and boot again on Windows 7 as usual. At least that's an option, even though it might not appeal to everyone. Hopefully they will fix the Windows 7 crashes since they intend to support it.

They are working on it. I sent my dbg file from test and first thing to try was a clan install of the Nvdia driver. I did that and sadly wince support for windows 7 stopped a few years back now the driver shows it installs but the system doesnt recognize it. So then I couldnt play EQ at all since it said that my video card wasnt supported. I had to turn the test build on in Windows 7 to make it work. Couldnt roll back driver since it was removed due to clean install. Hopefully they can get something figured out as to why this is happening. Until then I guess Im forever in test build of Windows 7...

That's simply not a solution most people are willing to do, just to play a single game...especially when literally everything else on the computer works just fine.

If it's not going to work with Win 7, then they need to suck it up and say so NOW so I (and probably a lot of other people) can go ahead and cancel accounts. And I certainly won't be buying the next expansion until I know I can actually play it.

How long did EQ continue to run on XP after it was no longer supported? I would guess that this might be somewhat similar. There were probably a lot of people who had their XP boxes with all the stuff they wanted and didn't want to move up to Win7.

For the most part, main gripe I had with Win7->Win10 upgrade was that the UI changed. And again in Win11. The apps and everything worked fine. If someone mainly wants to keep the Win7 interface, there are 3rd party apps to make the desktop look more like Win7 or whatever OS you prefer.

For me, appearance is never a consideration for doing an upgrade. My concern is with the software I use and hardware it runs on. Will it all continue to function correctly if I upgrade? I don't know. And that uncertainty is more than enough for me to not upgrade just for the sake of one game.

If the DX upgrade is not going to work with Win 7, then they need to just be honest and say so, instead of going through the sham of trying to get it to work. The thing is, I think they ALREADY KNOW and for whatever reason won't admit it.

I know that the forums are a relatively small sample size of the player base, but I have yet to see a SINGLE Win 7 user post that they can get it to work. That doesn't seem like they need to just make some tweaks...it sounds like they know it won't work and are afraid to say so.

What happened with EQ on WinXP when it reached end-of-life? Was there a particular EQ patch where it no longer worked and Win7 was the only option?

I kept my system on XP a long time past EOL, but eventually I had to upgrade since some of the programs I used weren't working on XP anymore. I wasn't playing EQ at the time, so I'm not sure how long it kept working on XP.

Im trying to remain hopeful because they are working on it.

In 2017, there was a change to LaunchPad that broke compatibility with WinXP and Vista. The EQ devs did not plan on EQ no longer working on those versions of Windows, but the LaunchPad devs wouldn't or couldn't make it work on the older Windows. Some EQ players provided updated files to the community so that users of XP and Vista could still play EQ.

In the April 2018 patch, the EQ devs officially disallowed EQ from running on XP and Vista. I believe that was announced in advance, but I don't know how far in advance.

Totally feel you on this one.


I made the move to 10 after much resistance and I am happier for it. Sorry this upgrade is causing you grief.

I updated from Windows 8.1 to 10 last year (not because of EQ) and I can say that EQ does run much better on Windows 10. Zone times are noticeably quicker for example.

My old machine runs on Test okay too.

Windows 10 may just be the best best version of windows. Not sure why people are so afraid of upgrading.