System Five On-Premises Customer Support and Requirements Guide

• On-premises installations require System Five 7.x or later.
• Windward supports the current quarterly General Release and the previous four quarterly General Releases. Requirements specific to your environment can override this rolling policy.
• Windows Server 2022 with Actian Zen 15 is Fully Supported.
• Support for Windows Server 2025 isn't currently available, because the database platform doesn't support it.
• Windows 10 reached End of Support in October 2026.
• System Five versions earlier than 7.0.2 reached End of Support in October 2026.
• Actian Zen versions earlier than Zen 15 reached End of Support in October 2026.

Windward only develops and tests System Five on supported environments, and releases fixes only in current versions. Outside this guidance, Windward can't predict how System Five behaves, so the help it can provide is limited.

Support requires an active maintenance agreement. Without one, Windward doesn't provide support.

With an active maintenance agreement, you receive Full Support when all of the following are true:

• You run the current release or a supported version of System Five.
• You run a supported database version.
• You run a supported Windows desktop and server operating system.
• Your hardware meets the minimum hardware requirements.

If any of this isn't true, see Limited Support.

• System Five 8 is recommended for all users.
• System Five 7.0.4.8 or later is the minimum recommended version on Windows 11. Windows 11 service updates introduced changes that affect performance in earlier builds.
• Windward supports the current quarterly General Release and the previous four quarterly General Releases.
• Operating system minimums always take precedence over the rolling release policy.

Windward doesn't recommend versions 7.0.2 through 7.0.4.7 on Windows 11. Some customers with specific environmental factors had performance and stability problems with these builds.

• System Five versions earlier than 7.0.2 reached End of Support in October 2026. This applies in every environment.
• If you have active maintenance, you're entitled to upgrade to the current supported version of System Five.

• Older versions were built for earlier operating systems and storage models.
• As platforms change, older versions become harder to stabilize and support.
• When Windward focuses on releases that run on vendor-supported platforms, it can deliver meaningful fixes, performance improvements, and predictable results.
• Unsupported software, whether Windows, Actian Zen, or System Five, no longer receives security fixes. That leaves your business and customer data at a higher risk of cyberattacks.

If you run an older version of System Five:

• Support focuses on help using the application and upgrade planning.
• Some performance, reliability, or compatibility problems can't be fixed without an upgrade.
• Running an unsupported combination of Windows, database, and System Five versions puts your business at risk.

Windward strongly recommends that you plan your upgrade to a supported version of System Five now.

Servers (Production and Database Hosts)

• Modern multi-core CPU: Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC class (Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 is acceptable for smaller sites)
• 16 GB RAM minimum (32 GB recommended)
• SSD or NVMe storage only (RAID 10 or equivalent strongly recommended)
• 500 GB free disk space minimum for growth, logs, and backups
• Dedicated storage I/O (no shared or burstable disk tiers)
• Wired network connection (1 Gbps minimum) with consistently low ping and packet loss

Terminals and Workstations (POS and Back Office)

• Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 or better
• 16 GB RAM minimum (more than 24 GB recommended)
• SSD storage with at least 100 GB free space
• Wired network connection (10/100 Mbps minimum, 1 Gbps recommended) with consistently low ping and packet loss. Wi-Fi isn't supported for production POS.
• Thin clients aren't supported as System Five terminals or workstations, because of latency, peripheral, and local resource limits.

Full Support applies only to dedicated, single-tenant physical hardware. Virtualized deployments receive application-level assistance only (see Virtualization Policy below for details).

Supported Windows Server Versions

• Windows Server 2022: Fully Supported with Actian Zen 15. Recommended for new deployments.
• Windows Server 2019: Fully Supported with Actian Zen 15.
• Windows Server 2016: Limited Support, existing environments only. Windward ends support on January 12, 2027, when Microsoft ends extended support.

Not Supported

• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server Essentials editions
• Windows Server versions earlier than 2016
• Desktop editions of Windows used as the server

• Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise: Fully Supported.
• Windows 10: End of Support since October 2026. Windward can help you plan your move to Windows 11. Windward requires that you move Windows 10 workstations to Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise.

• Actian Zen 15 is the only Zen version supported on Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022.
• Actian Zen versions earlier than Zen 15 reached End of Support in October 2026.

Windward Software does not recommend or support production use of System Five in customer-managed virtualized environments.

• Full Support applies only to dedicated physical hardware.
• Virtualized deployments receive application-level assistance only.
• Customers running System Five in virtualized environments assume all risk of disruption to performance, stability, availability, or data integrity. They also assume all third-party IT costs for maintaining and troubleshooting their unsupported environment.

When System Five is deployed in a virtualized environment:

• Windward Software provides functional, application-level assistance only.
• Windward Software does not diagnose or resolve issues related to or caused by:
  • Virtual machine configuration
  • Performance degradation
  • Storage latency or I/O contention
  • Virtual network instability or access issues
  • Hypervisor configuration or health
  • Host-level resource contention

If virtualization-related factors are suspected as the cause of an issue, Windward may require you to reproduce the issue on supported, non-virtualized physical hardware to continue troubleshooting with the assistance of Windward Software Support Services.

Running System Five virtualized in production is done entirely at the customer's risk.

Running System Five in a virtualized environment commonly leads to significant operational risk when not deployed in a carefully tuned and actively managed infrastructure.

Customers frequently experience slower system response, inconsistent day-to-day operation, and unexpected disruptions that affect normal business activities. These issues can lead to delays at point of sale, reduced staff productivity, and periods where the system is partially or fully unavailable. Maintenance events or background processes may cause sudden disruptions without warning, increasing downtime and frustration for users. In some cases, significant data corruption and full or partial loss of critical System Five data has occurred.

Because these issues are caused by factors outside the System Five software and require specialized configuration and ongoing involvement from internal or third-party IT staff, Windward Software Support Services cannot guarantee stable or reliable operation of System Five in these environments.

If a customer elects to deploy System Five in a virtualized environment, Windward Software Support Services provides application-level assistance only. All troubleshooting related to the operational integrity of the system and the virtualized environment itself falls outside Windward Software's Scope of Support and remains the customer's responsibility.

When diagnosing issues in a virtualized environment, customers must independently evaluate and remediate factors including, but not limited to:

• Host-level resource contention
  • CPU over-commitment, CPU ready time, or lack of pinned or dedicated vCPUs
  • Memory ballooning, swapping, or dynamic memory allocation
• Storage architecture and performance
  • Shared SAN or NAS performance and queue depth
  • Thin-provisioned or burstable storage tiers
  • Snapshot chains, replication lag, or backup-related I/O interference
  • Inconsistent or high disk latency at the hypervisor layer
• Hypervisor configuration and health
  • Scheduler behavior, NUMA alignment, and host oversubscription
  • Host maintenance activity, live migration, or failover events
  • Version compatibility between hypervisor, guest OS, and storage drivers
• Network virtualization and connectivity
  • Virtual switches, VLAN configuration, and MTU mismatches
  • Packet loss, jitter, or latency introduced by virtual networking layers
  • Firewall, IDS/IPS, or traffic-shaping applied at the host or virtual network level
• Third-party tooling and services
  • Backup agents, antivirus, endpoint protection, or monitoring tools running inside the VM
  • Host-based security or compliance tooling impacting I/O or process scheduling

Windward Software will not diagnose, tune, or validate hypervisor, storage, network, or host-level configurations. If virtualization-related factors are suspected or identified, Windward may require you to:

• Engage your virtualization or infrastructure provider, or
• Reproduce the issue on supported, non-virtualized physical hardware, or
• Migrate the workload to a Windward-managed cloud environment.

• Windward's System Five on Cloud solution, where virtualization is purpose-built, configured, and supported for System Five workloads
• Dedicated, single-tenant physical (bare-metal) servers

Windward can assist you in planning a server migration.

What This Means

Your product version or setup is current and fully supported.

What You Can Expect

• Windward actively supports and maintains this version.
• Windward investigates and fixes problems when needed.
• Updates can include bug fixes, performance improvements, and reliability enhancements.
• Windward recommends this level for all customers.

What This Means

Your product version or setup doesn't meet the Full Support requirements. Windward helps with how-to questions, basic troubleshooting, and upgrading to a supported setup. Limited Support doesn't include in-depth troubleshooting, bug reports or fixes, or development services.

What You Can Expect

• Windward helps with how-to questions and basic troubleshooting.
• Windward helps you plan and complete an upgrade to a supported setup.
• Windward doesn't investigate or fix software problems, and doesn't take bug reports.
• Many problems require an upgrade before Windward can resolve them.

In Simple Terms

Windward can help you use System Five and get to a supported setup. Many problems require that upgrade before they can be resolved.

Why

Windward Software only develops and tests System Five on supported operating systems, databases, and versions, and releases fixes only in current versions. Outside those, Windward can't predict how System Five behaves, so problems that need in-depth troubleshooting or a software fix can only be addressed after you upgrade. Windward only gives guidance that leads you to a stable, reliable, supported setup.

What This Means

Windward no longer supports this product version or setup.

What You Can Expect

• Windward can't troubleshoot or fix problems.
• Windward can't confirm compatibility with your systems.
• Windward helps you plan your upgrade.

In Simple Terms

Windward can't help with problems until you upgrade. Continuing to run this version carries risk.

What This Means

A General Release is a fully validated, production-ready version. It has completed testing and is approved for broad customer use.

What You Can Expect

• Intended for production and business-critical environments
• Fully tested for stability, performance, and compatibility
• Eligible for Full Support under Windward's standard support agreements
• Can receive bug fixes, reliability improvements, and servicing updates
• New General Releases every quarter

In Simple Terms

This is the safest version to run, and the one Windward recommends.

What This Means

A Release Candidate is a near-final version. It's functionally complete but still in final validation before it becomes a General Release. Release Candidates help Windward validate real-world use and improve quality before a General Release.

Use a Release Candidate in production only when you urgently need a specific fix and can't wait for the next General Release. In these cases:

• Limit its use where possible.
• Plan to move to the next General Release when it's available.

What You Can Expect

• Intended for evaluation, testing, and early validation
• Feature complete, but can still contain unresolved problems
• Limited Support, focused on feedback and finding problems
• Can still change before the final General Release
• Not recommended for production use, except in specific circumstances

In Simple Terms

This version is almost ready, but not final. Use it in non-production or pilot environments.

What This Means

Some problems are too impactful to wait for the next planned General Release. In these cases, Windward can deliver a hotfix that Windward promotes directly to General Release.

When Windward Makes This Decision

Windward considers a hotfix General Release when one or more of these apply:

• The problem has a material impact on customer operations, stability, or data integrity.
• The problem affects multiple customers or is likely to affect more.
• There is no workaround that avoids customer risk.
• Waiting for the next scheduled release would cause unacceptable disruption.

What You Can Expect

• The fix is narrowly scoped to the specific problem.
• Testing is focused and risk-based, with priority on safety and avoiding regressions.
• Once issued, the release is a Fully Supported General Release.
• Windward strongly recommends that customers on affected versions upgrade.

• General Releases align with Fully Supported versions in Windward's support lifecycle.
• Release Candidates aren't intended for long-term production use.

You receive Limited Support.

System Five depends on the operating system and database it runs on. When that software is unsupported, or is used in a combination Windward doesn't support, problems that start there can show up in System Five. Windward can't fix those problems from within System Five.

Because your System Five version is current, Windward still helps with how-to questions and basic troubleshooting. Windward Software only develops and tests System Five on supported operating systems and databases, so it can't predict how System Five behaves on unsupported software, or troubleshoot or fix problems that start there. Many problems require that software to be upgraded before Windward can resolve them.

For example, Windows 10 and Actian Zen versions earlier than Zen 15 are at End of Support. Windward doesn't support them, even when your System Five version is current. If you still use either one, your support stays limited until you upgrade your operating system, your Actian Zen database, or both.

An unsupported setup can also limit your System Five upgrade options and the features available to you. Some System Five releases and capabilities require a fully supported environment.

Windward fully supports your environment and software when every part of your setup is on a supported version, and can help you plan an upgrade if needed.

Windward chose to end System Five support on Windows 10, with or without Microsoft's Extended Security Updates (ESU). Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. ESU delivers only critical and important security fixes, and Windows 10 no longer receives feature, reliability, or compatibility updates. An operating system in this state carries more security risk than a current one, so it isn't an optimal environment for System Five or the business data it holds. Attacks on unpatched systems are also faster and more automated than ever, so that risk keeps growing.

Supporting current, vendor-supported technology also lets Windward narrow its focus. Instead of spreading effort across aging platforms, Windward puts it into stability and new features on the platforms you should be running.

Consumer and Business ESU Are Different

You may have read that Microsoft extended Windows 10 security updates through 2027. That extension is Microsoft's free consumer program, and it covers personal devices only. Business devices fall under a separate commercial program that Microsoft charges for. Neither program changes Windward's position. Windows 10 is at End of Support for System Five.