I just happened across some comments that have left me very frightened and disturbed. The implication seemed to be that games purchased from GOG can no longer be installed without the Galaxy client (This is implied by the statement that, if Galaxy no longer runs on Windows 7, then all of the games that one has purchased will no longer be able to be installed.).

Games can be downloaded without Galaxy, which is what I have always done, as I have no plans to run away from Web account-based DRM only to embrace it anew. But though I have downloaded games very recently, the latest game that I have installed was in 2020.

Has something changed? Can games now be downloaded without Galaxy, but not installed?

Valve's decision to disallow operation of Windows 7 is the reason that I recently began re-purchasing games from GOG. If the same thing is happening at GOG, I don't know what I'm going to do. This would be beyond tragic.

Have I scared myself for no reason?

The short version is: games can still be downloaded and installed without Galaxy, but it is now permissable for games on GOG to have DRM-ed elements only accessible online, with no "backup offline installer" equivalent, such as items or features GOG arbitrarily deems not important enough to violate their DRM-free policy (even though simple logic dictates that DRM is DRM regardless of what is DRMed, just like a safe is a safe regardless of whether you put diamonds or old socks inside).

Here is a helpful thread tracking sush DRMed elements on GOG.

GOG Galaxy doesn't officially support Windows 7 because it's based on Google's engine for their Chrome browser. That dragged up the system requirements regardless of what GOG wants. Even so, there's been at least one GOG Galaxy update for Windows 7 so far.

All this has nothing to do with the offline installers, which use Inno Setup. Yes.

Ice_Mage knows what you are asking for, and it`s not about socks.

I can tell you this: keep your old offline installers! ^

GOG does not keep old versions of offline installers, it has happened with games for XP/Vista and I believe that Win7 might be next. Installing games for XP is hard and from GOG you get[edit: some games work some not, I keep testing] , yet... XP is no more... Despite having all the licenses (GOG`s installers, CDs, magazines, auctions)... I need all my skills and knowledge to make it work again... but it`s OK as... XP is no more...

Now then, we have 2023. How long until it will happen to Win7? There are no official updates already, and the system is considered as not safe. It will happen and you win with offline installers downloaded today or two years in the past... and It has nothing to do with DRM. (although this thread run by Lifthrasil is important for many reasons)

The best we can do is to Freeze time.... on our computers : ) I have frozen two machines in time, one laptop for XP and one(in progress) for Win7... let`s compare it to new consoles... I am calling it G90 for XP machine able to run all 90`s games from GOG in their original versions... G100 for the machine prepared for all 00`s games up to 2009.... and there will be G110(this one with Galaxy) and so on... new machine for every decade....and then... you pulling out the internet cable (or disabling wifi in a PC) no more updates (there are none anyway) no more trying to be up-to-date with anything.... This is your final G90, G100, G110,...

Games work? Great! Freeze machine in time : )

edit: Yes, just testing it. Some of them work... and... not only GOG... all other official services doing the same thing (e.g.C&C)... this is in private hands to save old installers (and CDs, systems,...), ...and Microsoft stopped updates and even upgrades so I only use Galaxy on the newest machine with Win10...
plus what AB2012 said...

I appreciate all of the posts. It sounds like all of the games that I have downloaded thus far will install without issue.

Except --- it sounds like games designed for Vista or XP can't be expected to actually run on Vista or XP if they are downloaded from GOG? Am I mistaken?

For W7 they all still work. For XP, some of them won't because of Galaxy. Eg, GOG broke XP compatibility for Fallout New Vegas in the process of adding achievements (even to offline installers that can't use them). For those games, I agree with Seb3.7 in that upgrading offline installers purely for the sake of chasing a number (where there's no bug-fixes and its one of the many "updated internal installer structure, no changes to game files" changelogs), it's often just GOG messing about with shoving more Galaxy stuff into them, and you're better off keeping the older installer versions where possible. There are games on here that still have the old pre-Galaxy installer format (with the old green and gold logo) and they still work perfectly fine.

Thank you for the response.