Windows 7 support
Revision as of 09:33, 8 September 2010 by Torley Linden (talk | contribs)
This question comes up a lot in the forums in varied forms, and this page is a stopgap to answer:
- Is the Second Life Viewer compatible with Windows 7?
- Does Second Life run on Windows 7?
- Can I use Second Life on Windows 7?
The answer is officially yes from Linden Lab, with the following caveats:
- The System Requirements page needs to be updated. Changes are in the queue but they're awaiting a future web push. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive — dontcha wish it was as easy to change some text there as this wiki? ;)
- We support 32-bit Windows 7. 64-bit Windows 7 compatibility is unconfirmed. Torley's asked to find out if there are any particular known issues with 64-bit Windows 7, since there are an increasing number of modern systems that have >3 GB of RAM. There are many reports of the Viewer running fine on 64-bit, also called "x64". What's the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit?
- Some of the most common problems reported with a "Viewer 2.x and Windows 7" system are due to non-Windows 7-specific reasons:
- Non-existent or outdated graphics card drivers. Be sure to update them — that's true for every version of Windows.
- If your hardware is underpowered to begin with and doesn't otherwise meet the System Requirements, the Viewer won't run well, or at all. For example, netbooks with "Windows 7 Starter" that have too slow a CPU or graphics card.
Updates needed for this page? Contact Torley.