.NET support for Windows 7 and 8.1 will end in January 2023

> This issue is a locked mirror of https://github.com/dotnet/core/issues/7556. See that issue for discussion.

# .NET support for Windows 7 and 8.1 will end in January 2023

Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are currently [supported with .NET 6](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/6.0/supported-os.md#windows). They will not be supported with .NET 7+.

## Details

Windows 7 is only supported (with .NET 6) for organizations that have purchased [Extended Security Updates (ESU)](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/faq/extended-security-updates). Windows 7 will be supported for those organizations until the ESU offering ends, which is January, 2023. At that time, Windows 7 will no longer be supported with .NET 6.

Windows 8.1 is [supported until January 2023](https://docs.microsoft.com/lifecycle/products/windows-81). At that time, Windows 8.1 will no longer be supported with .NET 6.

[Windows Server 2012/R2 ESU](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/faq/extended-security-updates) will start mid-way through the .NET 7 lifecycle, in October 2023. We will offer support for Windows Server 2012/R2 throughout .NET 7 and .NET 8, assuming you have purchased ESU updates. We recommend that you do not install .NET 7 on Windows Server 2012/R2 unless you have a migration plan (within a year of [.NET 7 General Availability](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/releases.md)) to a newer operating system or plan to purchase Windows Server ESU.

Windows Server 2016+ will be supported throughout .NET 7 and .NET 8.

We encourage you to migrate to Windows 10 or 11 if you would like to use [.NET 7 or later on Windows Client](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/7.0/supported-os.md#windows).

This is a locked mirror of dotnet/core issue 7556, so start with that issue for the discussion. The payload names the supported-os.md files and releases.md, but gives no implementation entry point or completion criterion; no newcomer-ready change is defined here.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.