Nikon Capture NX-D 1.6.1 and WIN7 end of support

[mxbianco]

This morning I browsed the Nikon Download Center, and the following came out:

• New Capture NX-D Version 1.6.1
• New ViewNX-i Version 1.4.1
• New ViewNX-i & Capture NX-D Version 1.20.010
• New Distortion Control Version 2.0018

There is added support for the Nikon D780 and Coolpix P950
They have removed support for Windows 7, which has more impact on many users. I haven't tested it yet, should mean that the installation procedure exits if install is attempted from a Win 7 machine.

Version 1.6.0 is still supporting Win7

Note that I still am able to launch the camera firmware updates from a Win XP machine, even though Win XP support terminated on 2014 (and in the instructions it states you can't launch the application from a Win XP machine, BUT IT WORKS!)

Ciao from Massimo

[Birna Rørslett]

Just run the installer in a suitable compatibility mode ... you should be able to install on pre-10 Win.

Nikon always have had the inclination to ditch official support for older OS.

That beng said, the upgrade (or downgrade, depending on your point of reference) from Win7 to 10 was quite easy and just a few minor quirks had to be sorted. I did easily 8 computers in less than 20 hours. After installation, however, one needs to spend time removing all the bloated junk Microsoft foists upon us poor end users.

[Øivind Tøien]

Just run the installer in a suitable compatibility mode ... you should be able to install on pre-10 Win.

Nikon always have had the inclination to ditch official support for older OS.

That beng said, the upgrade (or downgrade, depending on your point of reference) from Win7 to 10 was quite easy and just a few minor quirks had to be sorted. I did easily 8 computers in less than 20 hours. After installation, however, one needs to spend time removing all the bloated junk Microsoft foists upon us poor end users.

There is no compatibility mode for higher than Win7 on a Win7 system, so no luck there.

Just tried the install on my Win7 system and the installer responds, no joke:
"ViewNx-i @ Capture NX-D does not run on your operating system".
This is rather upsetting, as there is no change log for this version as I can see, so perhaps the only version change is that MS has declared Win7 obsolete and Nikon made a change to the installer. (Could someone who actually was able to install it update us on this?)  Edit: I now see above that it added support for the two recently released cameras. I have hard time believing that Nikon made so much change to the applications that they actually do not run on Win7 if they were allowed to be installed. One thing is to not provide updates aimed at win7, another is to force users hands like this. Perhaps forced by the compiler? Or perhaps Nikon will not run Win7 test machines any longer and thereby declares it uninstallable as it is untested on the system.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Microsoft ended the support of Windows 7 yesterday, so it may become unsafe quite soon. It's unfortunate how nowadays you have to get constant supply of security updates - couldn't they just have designed it to be safe in the first place and not add anything that could violate that.

Windows 10 has been working very well for me.

[Øivind Tøien]

Has anyone here tested CNX2 under Windows 10 ?

MS did end support yesterday, but they provided a last monthly update then too. So there is no way our win7 systems suddenly are less safe because support ended yesterday. (Noramlly there would be another month before the next monthly update).

I just hate the user interface changes in Win10, and there is no way of knowing how many legacy applications I run that will break, or if I even have proper drivers for my hardware.

[Birna Rørslett]

Download Classic Shell and use that instead of the stupid tile version Win10 "blesses" us with. Use the Powershell facility to get rid of all the junk software accompanying Win10. What photographer needs "XBox" game software on their work computer?

My various proprietary software generally thrive with Win10, though. Actually, some better that Win7 after the last few updates. Win7 did have a less idiotic user interface, but Win10 can easily be tweaked to behave quite similar to its predecessor.

[Fons Baerken]

You need to log into the admin account to install the i-view plus nx-d suite!

[Øivind Tøien]

Fons, that has always been the case, but in this case "run as administrator" does not help, it refuses install as soon as Win7 is detected.

Thanks for the Classic Shell tip, Birna; I will keep that in mind.

As I am happy with what camera bodies I currently have and the version of CNX-D runs reasonably well, I think I will cool it down a bit, and not rush into an upgrade as there are so many other things that can potentially break. Perhaps I can find a Win10 VM to test some of my legacy applications. Comments on CNX2 would be greatly appreciated.

[Fons Baerken]

Right a local account with admin rights doesnt work, a full separate admin account is needed to install software under win 10.

[Hugh_3170]

Oh so sadly true! 

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After installation, however, one needs to spend time removing all the bloated junk Microsoft foists upon us poor end users.

[Fons Baerken]

Nice link here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-to-uninstall-windows-10s-built-in-apps-and-how-to-reinstall-them/

[mxbianco]

Just tried running the Distortion Control 2.0018, it expands correctly both under Win XP and WIN 7

Being a simple compressed file self-extractor, there is no version checking here (same for all other firmware updates).

For Nikon Capture/Nikon View, it would be a better option for Nikon to display a warning "Windows 7 environment detected", with a disclaimer, and then the software gets installed anyway. So responsibility on accepting some glitches and/or a program crash passes on to the user. The way they did it has the least impact on Nikon (no extra work on their part, wiping their hands clean of the problem), except for their reputation...

I don't like this type of behaviour. Nikon can -and should- do better than that!

Ciao from Massimo

[Øivind Tøien]

Nice link here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-to-uninstall-windows-10s-built-in-apps-and-how-to-reinstall-them/

Thanks Fons, I happened to be on the same pages, many good tips there.

I was rather shocked to see the amount of advertising in Win10 (Win7 none), apparently even in a clean installed system, in this article article about how to remove them:
https://www.howtogeek.com/269331/how-to-disable-all-of-windows-10s-built-in-advertising/
I regard the ad-blocker in my browser to be the most important security measure on my computer.

[armando_m]

Has anyone here tested CNX2 under Windows 10 ?

MS did end support yesterday, but they provided a last monthly update then too. So there is no way our win7 systems suddenly are less safe because support ended yesterday. (Noramlly there would be another month before the next monthly update).

I just hate the user interface changes in Win10, and there is no way of knowing how many legacy applications I run that will break, or if I even have proper drivers for my hardware.

yes, nx2 runs ok on win10

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks, Armando, good to know. Finally a bright point.