I apologize if this question has been discussed and answered already, as I suspect it has, but I'm curious about all the games for sale at GOG that are obviously Win7 games, and each carries the warning text that "Win10 updates may make this game incompatible with your system." This implies that somewhere near half of the games for sale have not undergone tweaking to make them playable on the next generation of Windows.

So what do you do? Is the "warning" a bit of overkill? Do you buy the game, anyway, and hope for the best? Are there really so few people who have migrated to Win10 at this point?

Windows 10 marketing share is something above 26%, so many people have moved to the new operating system. I have a bunch of games from GOG that play just fine on my Windows 10 computer. Which games are you talking about? If they don't list the games as compatible with Windows 10, they probably will not be.

I think I know what Reenie is talking about, as I have noticed it too. On quite a few of the game-page downloads on GOG, on the righthand side below the system requirements, I see this disclaimer:

GOG isn't going to list a game as compatible with Windows 10 if they've never tested it.
But if GOG hadn't had issues with Windows 10 updates and game compatibility in the past, they wouldn't have the disclaimer. What works today may not work tomorrow on 100% of computers with Windows 10.

Remember Microsoft has said "Windows 10" will be their last operating system. That doesn't mean their future versions of Windows won't be a different operating system -- just that they'll call all future versions of their operating system "Windows 10." (unless they change their minds again).

Remember how the Windows 10 "Anniversary Update" was a download of up to 6 GB and was essentially a reinstall of the Windows 10 operating system. Windows 10 in 2018 may be a different operating system (different version of Windows) than Windows 10 in 2017, and backwards compatibility may be different, but Microsoft will still call it "Windows 10." GOG can't guarantee their games will work on all future versions of Windows.

If GOG claims a game is compatible with Windows 10, it will probably work fine. If it doesn't, GOG will refund you. But if the game stops working because of some future Windows 10 update, they don't want to be expected to refund everybody.

Great explanation...

Thanks Jenny100. You do have a wonderful way of explaining things so that we can all understand them!

I concur!

This is interesting , I think : Winndows 10 market share .

Yup... same graphic I looked at. I see I mistyped in 26% instead of 25% though.

Happens , no problems

I agree 100%

Plus I, personally, will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to Win10

To that end, ever since the forced fed Win10 marketing ploy started, I've been picking up copies of any games I fancy but don't already own - that will play on my Win98SE, WinXP or Win7 machine - including those tweaked for modern machines.

And I nearly have enough now to last me out what game playing years are left to me (I'm getting so old ).

But, hopefully, there are still a couple more years of new releases yet to come that I'll be able to choose from - and which won't require Win10 !!

Still have 3 years of Win 7 support from Microsoft left , so there is plenty of time .

Three more years should do it, Creeping_Doom !!

And if you have Windows 8.1 = The Extended Support cycle for Windows 8.1 lasts until January 10, 2023, so another 6 years of use and the Majority of games that play on Win 7 will play on Win8.1, I know, I have 8.1 64 bit and have had no problems so far on the Majority of the games I played on Win7 32 bit.

In the times I've messed with Win 10 , about the only problems I've ever had , is compatibility with some of my older games , & those were a fair bit , but others worked mostly . Not having total control over system updates is a real pain , but I tolerated it . The whole thing with the very aggressive marketing , installing without user permission , & the spying/telemetry (most of which can be disabled), left a bad taste in people's mouth . Win 10 does have some good points , but a lot of work could be done . If Microsoft wants a wider adaptation of Win 10 , there are things they could do .

Marian, your reference (and "paste-in" from GOG) was what I was referring to when I asked about compatibility. Sometimes, a company will post something like that simply as a generalized statement; sometimes it really means something. So, I did not want to buy a game, download it and then find out it didn't work, or worse, get halfway into it before it stopped working. They do say something about refunds, but that is not as big a concern as the disappointment of being unable to finish a started game. So I asked here.

I was looking at Tesla Effect, Primordia, Technobablyon and some others. From my recall, they all carried the same warning.

I don't know of any game at GOG that doesn't have that warning about Windows 10. You shouldn't have any problem with Tesla Effect, Primordia, and Technobabylon. They're all recent games, only 2 or 3 years old.

As Marian said, I think this is going to be a standard disclosure for all games and Windows 10. I have no problems with my GOG games and Windows 10 at all.

OK. I think I'll try one and see what happens.

Only problem I've had with any of my GOG games on Win 10 , was Vampire The Masquerade : Redemption . The problem I had/have , is in the lighting . Some areas of the game were just too dark , made it pretty much unplayable . Icewind Dale , released around the same time , I think , plays just fine . Both Dracula games (Resurrection & Last Sanctuary) played fine , other than stuttering cutscenes .

I don't know if I play Redemption on my Windows 10 computer. I'll have to check it out.