As a developer there are times you may need to use MySQL 5.7 but have it backwards compatible with MySQL 5.6, so that existing applications work as before. This is a collection from multiple sources, that seems to get everything to work fine

The settings below when added to my.ini or my.cnf have this effect

[mysqld]
# Only allow connections from localhost
# bind-address = 127.0.0.1
innodb_buffer_pool_size=6G
max_allowed_packet=128M
innodb_file_per_table = OFF
table_definition_cache = 400
table_open_cache = 400
performance_schema=ON
show_compatibility_56=1
sql_mode = IGNORE_SPACE,STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION
ssl=0

# general log
general-log=1
log-raw=1
general-log-file=/var/log/mysql/general.log