List of new software unlocked by Second System

[TSNH]

List of new software that Second System by @win32 allows to run.

Second System on win32's Patreon site | https://www.patreon.com/win32 | Please consider supporting his amazing work

 

The list uses the following format: ProgramName version : Originally works on -> Second System unlocks it for

Current version - At the time of testing the aforementioned version was the latest, so newer ones are likely to work too.

Feel free to report other programs.

Internet:

Firefox 143 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (Including Tor Browser and forks)

Chromium Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (Including Google Chrome and other forks)

Gpg4Win 4.4.1 with Kleopatra 3.30 Current version : Win7+ -> Vista+

Windows Basic Tools:

Windows 7 Paint (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+

Windows 10 1507 Snipping Tool (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+ (https://msfn.org/board/topic/182001-porting-snipping-tool-to-windows-7-from-windows-10/?do=findComment&comment=1210733)

Multimedia:

Foobar2000 2.51.1 Current version : Win7+ -> Vista+

WACUP 1.99

MP3Tag 3.31a Current version : (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+

Office tools:

LibreOffice 25.2.5.2 : Win7+ -> Vista+

Administrative tools:

Sysinternals Process Explorer 17.06 Current version : Win7+ -> Vista+

Sysinternels TCPView 4.19 Current version : (Win7/VistaExK)+ -> Vista+

Developer Tools:

PowerShell 7.5.3 Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+

Visual Studio Code 1.104.16282 Current version Win10+ -> Vista+ (including the open-source variant - VSCodium)

Gaming:

Steam Current version : Win10+ -> Win7+ (if you're facing rendering issues try disabling GPU acceleration by going into the client settings -> interface)

Stellaris Current version (needs --force-opengl in the shortcut path)

Hollow Knight Silksong Current version : Win10+ -> Vista+ (With CFF explorer edit UnityPlayer.dll and replace all did12on11 function calls to d3d11.dll with D3D11CreateDevice function, launch the game, if you get black screen, ctrl-alt-delete and go back to the game and it should work)

BeamNG Drive Current version (dx11 recommended)

 

All the credits for the Second System go to @win32, not me.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification purposes only.

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by TSNH

[TSNH]

List of software that needs Second System disabled to run

To disable Second System right click on the program's exe and select Disable Second System

Feel free to report other programs.

Don't work at all

 

Windows Installer - there are issues running the service through Second System, which means that it is currently set to bypass Second System. Therefore, it is presently incapable of running modules that are incompatible with Windows 7, specifically the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Enterprise MSI installers. - Tested by @win32

Notepad++ - disable Second System on Windows 7 due to DirectWrite incompatibility - Tested by @win32

Microsoft Office 2007 Excel and PowerPoint - Tested by @TSNH on Windows Vista and Windows Vista Oct.2022 x64 ExK

Internet Explorer 8 (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions) doesn’t launch if Second System is applied - Tested by @Vistaaa on Windows 7 x64

Visual Studio 2022 v17.6, which normally works on Windows 7, crashes when Second System is enabled (error message on startup in all compatibility modes: at least one component cannot be found, disabling Second System helps), Visual Studio Installer doesn't work if Second System is enabled, only transparent window appears - Tested by @Vistaaa on Windows 7 x64

older versions of Visual Studio Code tested on 1.81.1, in Windows 7 compatibility the window opens and closes immediately, nothing happens when Windows 10/11 compatibility mode is used) - Tested by @Vistaaa on Windows 7 x64

XAMPP Control Panel v.3.3.0 [Compiled Apr 6th, 2021] has some issues when Second System is enabled, Apache crashes on startup, disabling Second System helps - Tested by @Vistaaa on Windows 7 x64

r3dfox - Tested by @TSNH on Windows Vista and Windows Vista Oct.2022 x64 ExK

Need specific target OS compatibility

older version of PowerShell 7.2.2 - Windows 7/8.1 compatibility required, otherwise "Failed to create CoreCLR, HRESULT: 0x80004005"- Tested by @TSNH on Windows Vista Oct.2022 x64 ExK

Pale Moon - Windows 7/8.1 compatibility required, otherwise wrong size Windows 10 close button animations instead of Aero Glass ones - Tested by @TSNH on Windows Vista Oct.2022 x64 ExK

Winmerge - Windows 7/8.1 compatibility required, otherwise ugly Windows 10 non-aero titlebar - Tested by @TSNH on Windows Vista Oct.2022 x64 ExK

There are some issues

Firefox - Window buttons also do not render properly by default; this can be corrected by selecting the titlebar to appear separately from the tab strip, or downloading and installing the Segoe Fluent Icons font here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/downloads/#fonts. - Tested by @win32

 

 

Edited Monday at 11:33 AM by TSNH

[TSNH]

Incompatibilities with Vista Extended Kernel

Running both: Extended Kernel and Second System works mostly ok, but there are some incompatibilities so it may not be that good of an idea? In the following months I'm gonna be testing ExK + SeSy vs SeSy only and hopefully draw some conclusions

To disable Second System right click on the program's exe and select Disable Second System

Don't work at all

VLC Media Player - "application was not properly initialized" - Tested by @TSNH on Windows Vista Oct.2022 x64 ExK

There are some issues

Sysinternals Process Explorer 17.06 - On Vista ExK + SeSy sometimes launches sometimes not, same behavior as when ExK is used to provide compatibility)

Edited September 15 by TSNH

[TSNH]

Reserved

[NullEntity]

May I ask Is this like an extended kernel or something?

[TSNH]

On 9/17/2025 at 6:55 PM, NullEntity said:

May I ask Is this like an extended kernel or something?

Yes, form the user perspective it does the same thing,

it works a little bit different however as it doesn't replace system files and instead injects custom extending files into processes. And is available for Vista and 7, instead of just Vista as the original extended kernel was

Edited Friday at 12:12 PM by TSNH

[NullEntity]

3 hours ago, TSNH said:

Yes, form the user perspective it does the same thing,

it works a little bit different however as it doesn't replace system files and instead injects custom extending files into processes. And is available for Vista and 7, instead of just Vista as the original extended kernel was

Oh ok makes sense!

[kast_winvistauser]

Small add to that list from me

Gaming

Steam: Latest version Win10 -> Vista+ (win32 made hotfix of ss that allowed work steam on vista)

Need some workaround
Geometry Dash Latest version Win8.1 -> Vista+, but on vista u need to put xinput1_3.dll into folder with game and rename it to xinput1_4.dll, also needs 2015-2022 vs redist

Edited 2 hours ago by kast_winvistauser