This github issue:
... suggests that Racket 8.7 does not start on Windows 7. Does anyone here have a test machine, or know of a trustworthy VPS provider that supports Windows 7 instances?
I found this thread but there's no answer
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I recetly acquired an old Windows laptop, but have not used it, and have no idea whether is it Windows 7 or some kind of windows 8. I haven't even booted it. Is there a safe way to fine out without risking it on the internet? It's likely not even slightly up-to-date. Does Windows 7 need to phone home?
-- hendrik
On my windows 7 laptop 8.6 cs , 8.7 cs, 8.6 BC and 8.7 BS cannot start up.
Many thanks for your detective work! How about earlier versions? Does 8.5 start up?
Yes 8.5 does work well.
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The issue appears to be with a rebuilt library starting version 8.6. Copying the .dll files form a v8.5 installation's lib directory to the lib directory of an v8.7 installation allows DrRacket to run on the Windows 7 installation that I tried.
The specific failure that I saw with a plain v8.7 installation was about ScriptIsComplex — probably as referenced by Pango, and the note about Windows 7 compatibility on ScriptIsComplex function (usp10.h) - Win32 apps | Microsoft Learn is probably relevant. I'll check whether adjusting Pango linking helps, but there may be other problems.
Changing the link order for libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll did the trick.
For someone who needs a quick repair, if you don't want to install an old version to get the old DLLs, here's the only DLL that needs to be replaced:
https://www.cs.utah.edu/~mflatt/tmp/libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll
(32-bit version: https://www.cs.utah.edu/~mflatt/tmp/32/libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll)
Calling all Windows 7 users! (Or, perhaps more accurately, anyone who even has access to a Windows 7 machine.) Can anyone test and make sure that the 8.9 release of DrRacket works correctly on Windows 7?
8.5 and 8.9 cs do start.
Right, yes, v8.9 was the one we were hoping was fixed.
@joskoot , do you have time between the 17th and 22nd of this month to try this again with an 8.10 release candidate?
Yes, I hope my old desktop will still be working. It is slow and dying slowly, the keyboard already has died, but I’ll try. Give me a reminder please around the 17th.
Where can I find 8.10. Do you want both cd and BC checked?
I have looked in the snapshots, but it does not explicitly mention 8.10.
Is
SHA256: f455fddea8baf7541b7ccde5dd64bec2b0fd1b9c757300eeca4e9cb0b5a0c0ba
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Correct?
I’ll have time tomorrow or the two days after.
Hey there 
The candidates seem to be here: Racket: Racket Pre-Release 8.9.900 (racket-lang.org), if I'm not mistaken. From the looks of the past releases, x.x.900 seems to be a candidate for the following release.
Have a great week everyone!
Yep ... I'm waiting for the next build to finish, I'm hoping it will be the one we use for testing.
Did check BC too. Works too.
Sure! There's also another build coming, you're welcome to wait a day if you like.
Oh! All done then! Many thanks. Be prepared for me to contact you again in 3 months, for the next release :).