I know it's clearly stated in System Requirements that Windows 7 is not supported. But I'm sure that these limitations are artificial to force users to buy newer versions of Windows. And also as I suppose there is no serious changes in system core. So I believe it could work. But now I get following messagebox:
So possible variant are:
- Are there any tricks or hacks that can either fake windows version (registy hacks, replace system dll etc)?
- Or are there any software to make SQL Server installer think that my windows verion is higher?
- Anything else.
UPDATE
I have Windows 7 SP1 x64. I'm familiar with virtual machine and upgrading to Windows 10 options but I don't like them. I want to find way just to overcome OS limitation. I don't find Windows 8/8.1/10 usable. Also I am talking about express edition of SQL Server.
UPDATE 2
Tried to downgrade to Windows 7 after upgrading to Windows 10 and installing SQL Server 2016 on Windows 10, but with no success (strange but after downgrade I don't see SQL Server 2016). So resorting to Virtual Machine seems the only option (by the way I'm using VMware, not VirtualBox).