Problem updating from 4.1.5 to 4.2.0

[w.a.y.n.e]

I'm very much a novice with this, and only moved to Electrum after issues with my Blockchain.Info wallet and Multibit app where it was asking for the wallet to be updated, but then wouldn't accept the Password Mnemonics.

Whilst trying to find a fix for that, I ended up importing the wallet into Electrum and all has been fine until this latest update.
I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate.

I opened Electrum today to make a transfer and saw an update available, so after i'd sorted my transfer, I downloaded it, verified the download and installed the new version, then, on trying to open Electrum, I get the following errors (and yes I used the new desktop shortcut to run Electrum, not an old one)

https://i.postimg.cc/XJSHDfwN/error-1.png


and on closing that error, I get this one.....


https://i.postimg.cc/fb0qK2Sg/error-2.png



obviously this was all a bit scary, having lost access previously to my wallet, so i followed the guidance there and re-ran the 4.2.0 installer, no difference, restarted the pc, and re-ran Electrum, still no difference.

At this point I was beginning to worry, so system restored my pc to yesterday, and then tried runnign Electrum again, from the old short cut, this resulted in nothing happening/starting, so I re-installed v4.1.5 and I seem to be back up and running again now, but obviously not on the latest version.


So can anyone shed any light on this or offer any assistance as to what I may have done wrong, and how to install the latest version ?

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[jackg]

Can you check what version of Windows you're running?

Afaik there are 3 versions of Windows 7:
One was the default, one was service pack 1 and one was service pack 2 (you can find this under system in the control panel).

A lot of library problems are fixable by updating to service pack 1 if you can (the update was free). Alternatively, you might want to update straight to Windows 10 since that'll be a lot more secure.

[w.a.y.n.e]

64bit Service Pack 1


But just seen this in the release notes for v4.2.1 - which looks like it's just been or about to be released

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES



"- Windows: we are dropping support for Windows 7. (#7728)
     Version 4.2.0 already unintentionally broke compatibility with
     Win7 and there is no easy way to restore and maintain support.
     Existing users can keep using version 4.1.5 for now, but should
     consider upgrading or changing their OS.
     Win8.1 still works but only Win10 is regularly tested."



so i'm screwed then, and could lose access to my wallet ?



also, I see this reference in v4.2.0 change notes....

"* The minimum python version was increased to 3.8 (#7661)"

i'm guessing the python39.dll wasn't installed with 4.2.0 ?




this is not good, how do i backup my wallet so i can access it form something else should 4.1.5 become unusable ?


and does anyone have any recommendations for something else i can use for windows 7 ?


Edit:
or perhaps the stand alone executable will work ?

[hosseinimr93]

The problem is probably with the version of python you have installed. The minimum version of python required for running electrum has been increased.

Someone reported a same issue with electrum 4.2.0, a few days ago. Visit the following topic and read the replies made there.
Electrum 4.2.0 strange dll errors

[Charles-Tim]

or perhaps the stand alone executable will work ?

This is not about the one (be it standalone, Windows Installer or Portable version) you downloaded, from Electrum release note on GitHub that you just posted explains it all, upgrade your PC OS to Windows 10 Pro, even if it can not be upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, it is still compactible with Windows 10 generally and windows 8.1. It is advisable to use latest OS version and Windows do not even have support for Windows 7 again which should be a reason for you to upgrade to avoid vulnerability.

[khaled0111]

so i'm screwed then, and could lose access to my wallet ?
...
this is not good, how do i backup my wallet so i can access it form something else should 4.1.5 become unusable ?

No, you're not screwed. You can backup your wallet by creating one or more copies of your wallet file and/or writing down your wallet's seed (12 words) on a piece of paper and store it somewhere safe. You can then restore your wallet on any other device any time you want by importing the wallet file or the seed you backed up.

You can keep using version 4.1.5 till you decide to update your OS. I've been using version 4.0.2 for quite some time and didn't have any problems with it.

[BitMaxz]

this is not good, how do i backup my wallet so i can access it form something else should 4.1.5 become unusable ?
and does anyone have any recommendations for something else i can use for windows 7 ?

Edit:
or perhaps the stand alone executable will work ?

Stand-alone or Electrum portable will also do not work if you read the releases note Windows 7 have compatibility issue because the latest python does not support Windows 7.

Anytime you can go back up to the previous version just install the previous version again the installer can be found here https://download.electrum.org/

Make sure you have backup seed phrase or wallet file to recover your wallet.

[nc50lc]

The problem is probably with the version of python you have installed. The minimum version of python required for running electrum has been increased.
-snip-

The Windows binaries don't rely on an installed python in the Operating System, it should work without installing python; instead, they bundled python dll files in the binaries themselves.

However as stated in the Release Notes, it's now incompatible with Windows7.