https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_what_did_just_update_thread/post16541

The files haven't changed yet but probably soon unless that is yet another glitch.
Looks to me like they're planning to inject Galaxy into everything soon and dropping support in the off-line installers left and right because of the broken compatibilities that are caused by it (see New Vegas).

At this point, Steam has better/more WinXP support than "The dealer formerly known as Good old Games".
It's just a matter of time when they'll break WINE compatibilities in old installers too yet again.

Be cautious before downloading updated installers, keep the old ones safe.

Are there other games where they dropped it later after it was already sold in high numbers with different support listed?

Linux people are resourceful, they'll manage to fix what GOG breaks.

WinXP is no longer officially supported on Gog for months if not years; they are most probably cleaning up the database to avoid confusion; as in peoples believing that XP is still supported because it is written so in the game card. I don't know but the old Gog motto was : having old games working on recent OS and not having somewhat recent games working on a no longer supported 16 years old OS.

the top of this joke is about breaking XP support for games that were released BEFORE vista even existed

which is ludicrous...

games that were released during XP era and during time where nothing above XP existed will soon not be able to run on gog version because of stupid galaxy dependencies

good OLD games that cant support hardware and system of their own OLD days !

honestly, regarding XP-released games, such move from gog is beyond stupid and even anti-consumer and completely disloyal and dishonest

That's actually pretty common on Gog and it has always been. There are plenty of games that have been altered to work on "modern" OS and that as a result would no longer work on their original system.

Dosbox games would work on their original system but it's more a side effect of how Dosbox itself woks rather than something done on purpose. For the others is on a case by case basis depending on what Gog had to use to make them work.

Not for this particular reason, but definitely keeping those I have because I want nothing to do with Galaxy.
Getting it in the offline installers, what the...? An installer can check and if it doesn't find Galaxy I guess it could ask whether the user wants to install it (in which case it'd be downloaded, obviously don't include it in game installers!), while if it does find it it can ask whether the user wants the game to use Galaxy. If no, no trace of Galaxy should be active in/with the game, shouldn't influence it in any way.

That's fine, as long as the original, unaltered game files are provided in all cases where compatibility is broken.

You should vote in the wishlist for that feature to be added :

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/provide_disk_images_of_original_install_media

Didn't you see the thread announcement where GOG said this is exactly what they planned to do (add Galaxy to the offline installers)? And to make it 'convenient', the option to install Galaxy was to be checked to install it by default (you'd have to opt-out: Every.Time.You.Install.A.Game.)

They've since backpedalled on that and haven't yet started adding a Galaxy stub to installers, but it's still planned. The change? They're going to provide 'classic' offline installers that don't have the Galaxy client stub (they've decided they'll go with a stub instead of the whole installer, so it will fetch Galaxy from the GOG servers if you choose to install it), which you can access through your game library (probably be under 'extras' or 'goodies' or something like that).

Still going to be an opt-out instead of opt-in though for the new Galaxy-laden installers.

Welcome to the brave new future!

Done.

Fortunately, "Rollbacks" feature is available.
I hope older versions will be available through this function of Galaxy client (i keep my expectations low though).

Now I wonder: Why GOG's client can't act like Steam or Origin client?

Steam client works on Windows XP and doesn't cripple games, which were developed for Windows XP. Steam client still receives official support and updates on Windows XP.

Origin client dropped Windows XP support and now works in a limited way (can't browse store and buy games, probably no achievements) on Windows XP, but it still works and i can download and install games from my library from it.

GOG Galaxy is the worst of the three. Thanks to Galaxy, GOG's version of Fallout: New Vegas is inferior to Steam's version, which installs and works on Windows XP without any problem, without having to manually tinker with 3rd-party libs to make it work.

PS: interesting, what is going to happen with games like Gothic 1, which works only on Windows XP and Vista? GOG will remove them from catalogue due to absence of XP/Vista support?

Saw it, albeit belatedly. Didn't even bother looking more into it. Say GOG's direction since the "good news" and flush. Several times, probably. And then feel bad about the waste of water.
Don't mind much needing to opt out every time if it'd be a clear option right there, not needing to dig through some separate options screen or something not immediately obvious if you just click through, but definitely do mind that anything, including a stub, will be included, and the installer without it will be separate and not the main one.
Very good point!

Pretty sure when I played it, it was on my Win7 rig. I'll have to double check that when I get home.
I do, since this is little more than malware behavior.

And it's easy enough to grab Galaxy if you inadvertently forgot to choose it (assuming an opt-in strategy instead of opt-out). But if you inadvertently opt-in, then you've got to go through the trouble of uninstalling it (or cancelling the game install altogether and starting it again). And you run the risk of doing that every single time.

There's no need to have the install option as the default, and GOG's explanation of why they want to go that way is beyond laughable: because the less 'tech-savvy' users wouldn't be able to find Galaxy to install it otherwise... the mind just explodes.

Only that compatibility isn't broken because of patches to make it run on modern systems but because of an optional™ client. That should be evident.
Voted already.
Games preservation is still important to some of us and not providing the original files is a problem.

That's the joke: Rollback is only available via Galaxy.
Classic trolling.

Also, please help me complete this GOG mix:
https://www.gog.com/mix/games_that_have_windows_xp_support_elsewhere

It's like people forget this was and is the stated purpose of GOG... WinXP/Vista is not modern.