At this point technical assistance, feature updates and security updates is no longer provided.

Released in July 2015, Windows 10 had a good run. It was well-received and served many millions of people well. When it was introduced, Microsoft said that Windows 10 would be the “last version of Windows“, but given where we are now that clearly did not end up being true.

If your development machine is still running Windows 10, you really need to get it upgraded to Windows 11. Unfortunately, many perfectly usable computers running Windows 10 do not meet the system requirements for Windows 11, which leaves a lot of people in the lurch. If you really have to stick with Windows 10 for a while longer, Microsoft will sell you an Extended Security Update for $30. This will extend support one more year, so out to late 2026.

What does this mean for Xojo? Nothing just yet. We still have Windows 10 as a supported OS, but don’t expect that to last much longer. Once an OS vendor drops support for an OS, we have to follow that guidance at some point. Expect Xojo to discontinue Windows 10 support at some point in 2026.

Paul learned to program in BASIC at age 13 and has programmed in more languages than he remembers, with Xojo being an obvious favorite. When not working on Xojo, you can find him talking about retrocomputing at Goto 10 and on Mastodon @lefebvre@hachyderm.io.

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With Windows 10 version 1703, Microsoft introduced built-in ICU support, allowing applications to use the system provided ICU instead of bundling their own. By leveraging this, Xojo now benefits from automatic updates, a reduced app footprint, and improved compatibility with the latest Unicode and locale data.

Which parts of the framework use ICU?

One of the main areas where ICU is used is the DateTime class, which includes Locale and TimeZone support. This helps with formatting dates and times and handling timezone differences reliably. ICU is also used for number formatting and string manipulation, particularly when working with characters like emojis and other complex Unicode symbols.

What benefits can be observed?

• Fewer DLLs
• 45MB smaller app sizes
• Faster execution times, i.e. DateTime.Now is roughly 10% faster
• Daylight saving time no longer requires a rebuild of your Xojo app

What are the new requirements?

As mentioned, Windows began including prebuilt ICU libraries starting with Windows 10 version 1703, so your apps won’t run on earlier versions. However, if you’re using Windows Server 2019, you’ll need to be on at least version 1809.

Conclusion

By shifting to Windows’ built-in ICU libraries, Xojo has eliminated the need for manual ICU updates and reducing app file sizes. This change means your apps will always have the latest updates for date/time, locale, and character handling, thanks to Windows updates.

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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But the time has come to start preparing to update. You will definitely want to update to Windows 10 and not Windows 8. Windows 10 is actually really nice and is updated regularly. I think you’ll find transitioning from Windows 7 to Windows 10 relatively painless. In fact, early last year Windows 10 overtook Windows 7 in usage per StatCounter. Sadly you can no longer get a free update to Windows 10 so you’ll have to purchase it, but since Microsoft has said that Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, you shouldn’t need to purchase it again.

What happens if you don’t update and want to stick with Windows 7 after January 14, 2020? According to Microsoft:

You can continue to use Windows 7, but once support ends, your PC will become more vulnerable to security risks. Windows will operate but you will stop receiving security and feature updates.

For the time being you can continue to use Windows 7 as you plan your update. Of course Xojo itself and apps made with it also continue to work on Windows 7, although you’ll want to make sure you have installed Service Pack 1.

First you’ll need Virtual Machine software. I prefer VMware Fusion, but the free VirtualBox can be used instead. You can download VirtualBox from here:

https://www.virtualbox.org

When VirtualBox is installed, you can head on over to the Microsoft site to get a test copy of Windows pre-configured for VirtualBox:

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

Microsoft provides versions of Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 that you can use for testing purposes. Simply download the ones you want and add them to VirtualBox.

You can install the Xojo Remote Debugger and use these test versions to test your Xojo apps for Windows. Or you can use these to run Windows-specific web browsers for testing your web apps. Keep in mind that these Windows VMs expire after 90 days, so you’ll have to re-download periodically.

I absolutely recommend you grab Windows 10 if you can. I use it daily and like it a lot. It is speedy, easy to use and works well with Xojo apps (and Xojo itself). If you are using Windows 8 or 8.1, there is really no reason not to upgrade as it is better in every way. If you are really fond of Windows 7, you have a tougher decision as Windows 10 looks a lot different and switching might be a bit of a shock.

However, for Xojo developers (or anyone) running Windows in a virtual machine you can take advantage of this free update and still keep your old OS around, which is useful for testing. Depending on the type of Windows license you have, you might be able to just make a copy of the VM file (assuming you have the space — they can be quite large) and then run the Windows 10 update on the copy. Although, I bet after you start using Windows 10, you’ll probably just end up sticking with it.

Now is also a great time to upgrade to Windows 10 because its first major update (called Windows 10 Anniversary Edition — Microsoft has the strangest names) will start becoming available for Windows 10 users in early August.

And remember, if you only use Windows for testing, Microsoft provides 90-day trials of Windows Enterprise that can be used for evaluation purposes. You can grab Windows 10, 8.1 and 8 from here:

• Windows Enterprise

Microsoft also makes available free virtual machines for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 that you can use for testing:

• Free Windows Virtual Machines

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Show Notes:

• Varsity Systems
• Regatta Manager Assistant
• Raspberry Pi GPIO Library
• Z-Wave
• DuckDuckGo
• Windows 10 Insider
• Windows 10 with Linux Bash
• EveryMac.com
• MagicJack