Feature Request: Continued Support for Windows 7 and Legacy Windows 10 Builds in Veeam Agent

[pstojak]

Hi Veeam Team,

I’m reaching out to ask for continued support for Windows 7 and older Windows 10 builds like 1903 in future versions of Veeam Agent and Veeam Backup & Replication.
In our industrial setup, we still rely on these OS versions because they’re tightly integrated with certified hardware and software. Upgrading them isn’t an option without risking system stability and compliance. That’s why backup support for these platforms is absolutely critical for us.
We know Veeam Agent 6.x and VBR 12.x still work with these systems, and that VBR 12 will be supported until at least Q1 2027 — which is great. But we’re worried about what happens after that, and whether future versions will drop support.
It would be really helpful if Veeam could:

Keep supporting these legacy OS versions in future releases.
Share a clear roadmap for legacy OS support.
Maybe even offer a lightweight or long-term support (LTS) version of the agent for industrial environments.

We’ve been using Veeam for years and would love to continue doing so, but losing support for these systems would force us to look elsewhere.
Thanks for considering this — and for understanding the challenges we face in industrial environments.

[Mildur]

Hi Pawel

Welcome to our forum.

Share a clear roadmap for legacy OS support.

The clear roadmap for legacy OS support was shared at the beginning of this year > [V13] System Requirements for our 2025 release

If these industrial machines are not connected to the Internet and are no longer receiving updates from Microsoft, it should not be a significant issue to freeze your backup environment as well and continue using the current version of Veeam (backup console v12, agent v6) for as long as needed. Does this work for you?

Keep supporting these legacy OS versions in future releases.
Maybe even offer a lightweight or long-term support (LTS) version of the agent for industrial environments.

Unfortunately we're unable to support legacy OS versions in our future releases because the OS vendor itself no longer supports them, meaning we're on our own if something goes wrong and are unable to actually provide meaningful support in case of actual issues.

In addition, there are security concerns around data/credentials leakage and potential take over of backup infrastructure through an unpatched and compromised protected workload.

Extended limited support for existing product version (V12) is up to our Customer Support organization. I recommended to discuss this with your Veeam sales rep, as depending on your contract size they might be able to agree to a special arrangement with our Support management enabling you to keep receiving support assistance for the defined static environment. At least this would not be a unique arrangement for sure.

Best,
Fabian