[actionfromafar]

Microsoft is very committed to support apps compatible with Windows versions from 1995 to about … 2007 or so.

[dunham]

I see. Coincidentally, my experience with windows mostly falls into that range of dates. (Actually goes back to the 80's, and ends around 2003.)

[actionfromafar]

I’m not entirely sure where the cutoff date is. But my general point is that Microsoft started churning lots of dev stacks which aren’t easy to install or deploy on their newest Windows versions, all the while a random Win32 program from 1999 works just fine.