Python 3.9 in Meson-0.56.2-64.msi does not work in windows 7

Describe the bug Python 3.9 is not supporting Win7, in particularly python39.dll relies on api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1.0.dll

https://bugs.python.org/issue40740 – similar error https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ – direct version restriction

The meson-0.56.2-64.msi brings python 3.9 while https://mesonbuild.com/Release-notes-for-0-56-0.html only warning about python 3.6 dependency in next release.

To Reproduce

• Install meson-0.56.2-64.msi on windows 7.
• Call from cmd meson

Meson directory structure

Spoiler

C:\Program Files\Meson>tree /F
Структура папок
Серийный номер тома: 4E04-CFAB
C:.
│   base_library.zip
│   libcrypto-1_1.dll
│   libffi-7.dll
│   libssl-1_1.dll
│   meson.exe
│   meson.exe.manifest
│   ninja.EXE
│   pyexpat.pyd
│   python39.dll
│   select.pyd
│   unicodedata.pyd
│   VCRUNTIME140.dll
│   _asyncio.pyd
│   _bz2.pyd
│   _ctypes.pyd
│   _decimal.pyd
│   _elementtree.pyd
│   _hashlib.pyd
│   _lzma.pyd
│   _multiprocessing.pyd
│   _overlapped.pyd
│   _queue.pyd
│   _socket.pyd
│   _ssl.pyd
│   _uuid.pyd
│
└───Include
        pyconfig.h

Output:

C:\Users\WS-0001>meson
Error loading Python DLL 'C:\Program Files\Meson\python39.dll'.

Popup:

Expected behavior Successful start of meson.

system parameters Windows 7.

[eli-schwartz]

Sorry, Windows 7 is no longer supported in Python 3.9.

That’s pretty problematic for shipping frozen binaries.

[eli-schwartz]

#8437 adds a Windows version check to the .msi installer in order to require Windows 10. I’m sorry that this isn’t the solution you want 😉 but this will make the support status clear and users trying to use the .msi on Windows 7 will no longer get confusing DLL errors after they successfully ran the installer.