Hi All...
After watching the latest WAN show and hearing Luke having issues with StreamDeck and older Windows versions, I decided to whip up a quick compatibility tool for running StreamDeck on Windows7/8.
Why doesn't StreamDeck work on older windows versions?:
StreamDeck is built against the Visual Studio 2017 'Minimal' runtime, which includes 'Shims' for certain api calls, since this is one of the newer runtimes, it contains a few functions which aren't available on Windows 7 or 8.1 out of the box.
The runtime is required when building C++/Native applications using Visual Studio.
How does the compatibility tool work?:
First, it requires you to download the latest MSI installer for StreamDeck from Elgato's site (https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/downloads).
Then, it bootstraps the installer to allow for it to install onto your system.
After installing, it will install the Visual Studio 2013 runtime (If not already installed).
Finally, the bootstrap will place 3 'Shim' dlls into the StreamDeck folder, which wrap the functions required to run StreamDeck.
The 'Shims' are linked against the older runtime and provide workarounds for the various missing API calls.
Notes:
If you have StreamDeck 'partially installed' from a previous attempt on your older OS, uninstall it first.
Extract the zip archive first before running the tool.
This is currently working as of 6/16/2018, should compatibility break again, hit me up with a message.
Please note that this is in no way endorsed by Elgato and in addition, is provided AS-IS with no warranty provided. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. That being said, If you do give it a go, please post your results here. I have only tested the tool on Windows 7 (64bit, which is required anyways). However I do not see any compatibility issues with 8.1 using the same method...
StreamDeckCompat.zip