Python 3.12 won't support Windows 8.1 according to the support policy in PEP 11, which states that a "new feature release X.Y.0 will support all Windows versions whose extended support phase has not yet expired". Extended support for Windows 8.1 ends on 2023-01-10. Python 3.12 is scheduled for release on 2023-10-02.

Note that extended support for Server 2012 R2 ends on 2023-10-10, just past the planned release date of Python 3.12. There is no benefit in terms of unconditionally adopting new features from Windows 10 if Server 2012 R2 (6.3.9600) has to be supported. Maybe the planned release date of 3.12 should be delayed a bit to sync this up.

There's a 21/31 chance that we'll release 3.12 after the end of 2012 R2 extended support 😉

I vote we just fudge the dates and say that 2012 R2 will go at the same time. We normally refer to consumer releases anyway, and let Server users infer from that.

For the benefit of others reading this issue, see #76773 and its linked PRs for how this was handled for Windows Vista-8.0

Some points of note:

• There is apparently no longer a working 8.1 buildbot; however, the latest main branch still builds, runs and the test suite passes (minus a few unrelated transient, environment-specific and defective-test failures) as of today on my Windows 8.1 Pro x64 test machine.
• It makes sense to drop support for 8.1 and 2012 at the same time, either in 3.12 or 3.13, since there would be little benefit in dropping the former without the latter.
• Windows 8.1 never had the uptake that Win 7 or Win 10 did, especially by the larger institutional users that tend to have slower upgrade cycles (not sure about 2012 server, though), and usage share as a percentage of total Windows versions is around 3%. ¹
• When dropping 8.1, it seems worth also thinking about whether support for EoL Windows 10 versions should be dropped too, at least those earlier than Windows Server 2016 (i.e. Windows 10 1607), the earliest still-supported mainstream version of Windows 10/Windows Server, which seems to strike a reasonable balance between tying support to consumer or even enterprise Win 10 GAC EoLs ², and supporting all the way back to the earliest Win 10 LTSC release (1507) ³.

Our (main branch using-python-on-windows docs) currently states "This means that Python 3.12 supports Windows 8.1 and newer. If you require Windows 7 support, please install Python 3.8." I believe this is just a leftover claim from 3.11

More specifically, the current docs version is automatically injected here, so this will just continue to state the currently supported version until a decision to drop support for it is made and implemented, presumably on this issue.

Python 3.12 won't support Windows 8.1 according to the support policy in PEP 11, which states that a "new feature release X.Y.0 will support all Windows versions whose extended support phase has not yet expired".

Just to note, PEP 11 doesn't actually say that new feature releases will only support non-EoL Windows versions or that EoL Windows versions must not be supported in new feature releases; rather, it only requires that non-EoL Windows versions be supported.

Is python 3.14 going to drop Win 8.1 support?
It's quite challenging to know what platforms your product supports without clear communications on what platforms Python supports.
Does 3.12 and 3.13 even support Windows 8.1 anymore given #110375 and the above comment?
People on this reddit thread claim Windows 8 is only stable on Python 3.9.
The downloads on the python website still imply Windows 8.0 is supported, even though that's already been dropped in code.
If we switch to 3.12/3.13/3.14 are we unknowingly dropping support for Win 8.1 devices?

Would a PR be accepted to drop Windows 8.1 properly in code and update docs for 3.14?

Is python 3.14 going to drop Win 8.1 support?

Yes, but we're only likely to block it or break it if we need to (and if enough people ask questions like "why can I still use it?" then we may decide we need to, because those kind of questions waste our time).

Are we going to hold up releases or schedule updates to fix issues in 8.1? No. That's our definition of "support", not whether it's possible to use - whether we'll react to issues.

Would a PR be accepted to drop Windows 8.1 properly in code and update docs for 3.14?

A PR to update docs is fine. A PR to add a feature that requires Windows 10 and won't work at all on Windows 8.1 is also fine.

A PR to explicitly block Windows 8.1 without being tied to something that won't work is not fine.