SAP GUI for Windows Release / Platform Availability & support - August 27, 2007 See also: SAP

notes 147519, 66971

Windows 2000

Windows Vista (only "Business", "Ultimate" and Windows XP (incl. Tablet-PC Edition) Windows 2003 Server "Enterprise" edtions) Windows 2008 Server

SAP GUI Version support timeline

SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 support is planned to be "long term". Limited support applies for SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 since 30th of September 2005 (see remarks below and SAP note 929300). SAP GUI for Windows 6.40 support ends on October 14, 2008. SAP GUI for Windows 7.10 support ends on March 31, 2011.

SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 SAP GUI for Windows 6.40 SAP GUI for Windows 7.10

X X X Limited support after June 30, 2005 => operating system upgrade recommended Support ends June 30, 2010 Until June 30, 2011

X X X Limited support after June 30, 2008 => operating system upgrade recommended Support ends December 31, 2011 Until December 31, 2012

X X X Limited support after June 30, 2008 => operating system upgrade recommended Support ends June 30, 2013 Until June 30, 2014

O O
X

O O
Planned for Q4/2007.

Platform support restriction Limited support from Operating System vendo Platform support deadline No support from Operating System vendo Additional "post mortem" QA procedures for platform

Not yet defined. Not yet defined. Not yet defined.

Not yet defined. Not yet defined. Not yet defined.

Further Comments

Clients can also be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Citrix Presentation Server

Clients can also be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Citrix Presentation Server

Clients can also be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Citrix Presentation Server

Clients can also be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Citrix Presentation Server

Clients can also be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Citrix Presentation Server

Legend
X: GUI / Platform combination is preferred X: GUI / Platform combination is available o: GUI / Platform combination is NOT available

A given combination of Windows operating system and SAP GUI release is supported as long as both the operating system AND the SAP GUI release is supported.

Support for older Operating Systems

Support for these platform has been dropped by Microsoft already in June 2003. Client platform can still be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Metaframe after support ends. Post mortem QA procedures: Ended. Support for SAP GUI on Microsoft Windows 98 was dropped in January 2004 despite the fact that Microsoft decided to extend the support for Windows 98 on a so-called "paid incident" basis. Customers still using Windows 98 are strongly advised to migrate to either Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Neither SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 nor SAP GUI for Windows 6.40 will work on Windows 98. Client platform can still be used to access SAP via Terminalserver or Citrix Presentation Server after end of support. Post mortem QA procedures: Ended.

Windows NT (Servicepack 6 or higher)

Windows 98

Compatibility and Upgrade

SAP GUI for Windows is "downward compatible". You can use, for example, SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 with R/3 3.1, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6. SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 and 6.40 are not only "downward compatible" in regards to SAP System, but also "upwards compatible". This means that you can use a SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 with SAP Systems based on SAP Netweaver 2004 and even SAP Netweaver 2004s (for NetWeaver 2004s based systems the following restrictions apply: BI 7.0 and SCM 5.0 require SAP GUI for Windows 6.40 Compilation 4 or higher due to new frontend components only available as of this compilation). For SAP Systems based on SAP Web Application Server releases newer than 7.00 you will need an installation of SAP GUI for Windows 7.10 (SAP GUI for Windows 6.20 and 6.40 are not upwards compatible to these systems). You do not neccessarily have to upgrade your frontend software (mind the restrictions mentioned above) when upgrading to a new SAP release (as long as you are using at least SAP GUI for Windows 6.20) though you will not benefit from new features newer SAP GUI releases may offer. You can upgrade SAP GUI prior to upgrading your SAP system. When upgrading SAP GUI, you should use the latest version available (please check for Hardware requirements in note 26417).

What does it mean ...

... Limited support ... Support ends ... Post mortem QA procedures SAP may not be able to solve problems that occur exclusively on such a platform. In these cases an operating system upgrade may be the solution SAP can offer. SAP does not solve / handle problems that occur exclusively on these platforms. For an additional transition phase of up to 12 month, SAP applies QA procedures to patches on these platforms.

Appendix: Operating System Lifetime (defined by OS vendor) End of Life: 30/2006 (on Windows 98 "paid incident" support Entering Non-Supported phase: 1/2004 (*) basis) End of Life: 6/2004 Windows NT 4.0 Entering Non-Supported phase: 6/2003 (*) End of Life: 6/2010 Windows 2000 Entering Extended Support phase: 6/2005 (*) End of Life: 12/2011 Windows XP Professional Entering Extended Support phase: 06/2008 (*) End of Life: 6/2013 Windows 2003 Server Entering Extended Support phase: 6/2008 (*)
(*) see also: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle.asp