Will a compile work across different Windows versions?

[Kurt Johnson]

If you create an EXE using PyInstaller in Windows 10, for example, will it also work in Windows 11? Or would you need to re-create on a Windows 11 machine?

[bwoodsend]

They're interchangeable. You only need to build on one of them.

[Steve Barnes]

It is worth noting that you do, however, need to consider the version of Python when trying to execute on significantly older Windows versions and different word sizes, i.e.:

• Built with 64-bit Python -> will not work on 32 bit Windows 10 (11 dropped 32 bit support)
• Built with 32-bit Python -> will work on both 32 & 64 bit Windows 10 & currently 11 but there are reports that this may change in "a future version of Windows 11"

From https://pythondev.readthedocs.io/platforms.html#windows the python support for older versions of Windows:

• Built with Python > 2.5.4 -> will not work on Windows < XP
• Built with Python >= 3.4 -> will not work on Windows =< 2000
• Built with Python >= 3.7 -> will not work on Windows =< Vista
• Built with Python >= 3.9 -> will not work on Windows =< 7

I know that these older Windows versions are "unsupported" but there are still machines out there using them so thought it was worth mentioning