Different versions of an OS = different quesitons?

Question

If someone asks a question relating to Windows Vista... Would relatively the same question (wanting to know how to accomplish a task) be considered a duplicate if tied to Windows 7?

If not, Would there be a distinction between Windows XP and Windows 7? Windows 2000?

(Then apply the same idea to apple's operating systems) Should I provide a more specific example?

Answer 1

In the context of versions, the tags should reflect the scope of the question and answers.

• If the Q&A is specific to a version, it should be tagged to that specific version.

• If the Q&A work for every version, you can safely tag it windows and avoid duplicates.

• If the Q&A only works for some versions, you could tag it like windows-vista windows-7.

It isn't a problem if the question was tagged too specific, we can retag it as duplicates show up.

The only problem I still foresee is when a question would apply to windows-vista, windows-7 and windows-8 but not to windows-xp:

• One solution is to provide a new kind of tag to group windows versions, like windows-nt-6.x.

• Another solution is to drop support for windows-xp soon, because it is already 10 years old.

Answer 2

I think there are two cases.

• The original question makes it clear that it's for a specific version. In this case, if you have a new question that related to another version of the OS, just ask it and make sure that you reference the old question. Tell us why the solutions there do not apply to the new version. However, it would be preferable to do this if the solutions are drastically different and it's not just a minor change in the name of buttons, menus, etc.

• The original question does not make it clear. For example, it was written when Vista was still the most recent Windows operating system. In this case, you should probably consider just editing the question to make it broader and place a bounty, in order to attract new answers that focus on newer versions as well. Or edit the existing answers (if any) to include instructions for newer versions, if you can do that.

Without any examples, it's hard to say, and I guess you can leave it for the community to decide whether they want to close it as a duplicate or not. I don't believe there's a general rule here.