Remove Windows Vista support

[zooba]

BPO	29075
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @pfmoore, @vstinner, @tjguk, @zware, @zooba
Superseder	bpo-32592: Drop support of Windows Vista and Windows 7

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2019-05-06.15:32:47.541>
created_at = <Date 2016-12-26.18:00:41.378>
labels = ['type-feature', '3.7', 'OS-windows']
title = 'Remove Windows Vista support'
updated_at = <Date 2019-05-06.15:32:47.537>
user = 'https://github.com/zooba'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2019-05-06.15:32:47.537>
actor = 'vstinner'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2019-05-06.15:32:47.541>
closer = 'vstinner'
components = ['Windows']
creation = <Date 2016-12-26.18:00:41.378>
creator = 'steve.dower'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 29075
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['284034', '284364', '284455', '341532']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'paul.moore', 'vstinner', 'tim.golden', 'zach.ware', 'steve.dower']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'duplicate'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = '32592'
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue29075'
versions = ['Python 3.7']

[zooba]

Windows Vista SP2 is out of support by the time that Python 3.7 releases (see PEP-0537 and [1]), so we should do the following tasks:

• update the definition of Py_WINVER in PC/pyconfig.h to 0x0601 _WIN32_WINNT_WIN7
• remove any dynamic API imports that are not required on Win7 (I don't think there are many, if any)
• remove pre-Win7 supportedOS elements from PC/python.manifest
• block Windows Vista in the installer

We may also be able to take advantage of new flags, particularly related to security (I think LoadLibrary[Ex] got new flags).

If there's anything else we need to do, post it here so we don't forget.

References:
[1]: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?alpha=Windows%20Vista%20Service%20Pack%202

[terryjreedy]

How certain are you that Vista support will actually end?

Other things: assuming reasonable certainty, could the 3.6 installer say "This is the last version that will run on Vista!"?

[zooba]

Only as certain as anyone else in the general public - I don't have any special information besides what has been published.

Since it's been published for the specific intent of helping 3rd parties plan their own deprecation cycles, I think it's okay to assume that it's correct. The chance of there being an XP-like backlash against Vista's end-of-life is very low.

[vstinner]

I close this issue as a duplicate of bpo-32592 which has a longer history.