As of 2025, Siemens has discontinued direct sales of new Step 7 V5.x licenses, pushing customers to TIA Portal. However, some authorized distributors still hold old stock or sell transferable licenses. Contact a local Siemens reseller and ask for 6ES7810-4CC10-0YA5 (Step 7 V5.6 SP2 Professional). Be prepared to pay €800–€1200.

Simatic Step 7 V5.6 is the final major iteration of the "Classic" Step 7 software. It is essential for programming the older but reliable S7-300, S7-400, and S7-400H (High Availability) controllers.

Service Pack 2 (SP2) was a significant update that provided critical bug fixes and, most importantly, updated compatibility with newer Windows operating systems.

SIMATIC Step 7 is Siemens’ engineering software for programming and configuring SIMATIC S7 PLCs and associated automation hardware. Version 5.6 is the last major classic Step 7 release for the S7-300/400 platform; Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides bug fixes, compatibility updates, and incremental improvements that address issues discovered after the base V5.6 release. Many industrial sites keep V5.6 (with SP2) for legacy hardware support and stability when migrating to newer TIA Portal environments isn’t feasible.

| Component | Requirement | |-----------|-------------| | OS | Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit), Windows 10 Pro/Enterprise (64-bit, up to v1809), Windows Server 2016 | | CPU | ≥ 2.5 GHz, dual-core recommended | | RAM | ≥ 4 GB (8 GB recommended) | | HDD | ≥ 10 GB free | | Other | .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, MS Message Queuing |