Tuesday, January 2nd 2024
Steam Ends Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 Support
As of January 1st, 2024, Steam has officially stopped supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. After that date, existing Steam Client installations on these operating systems will no longer receive any updates, including critical security updates. Steam Support will be unable to offer technical assistance to users still on these older operating systems. Steam also cannot guarantee the continued functionality or security of the Steam client and games purchased through Steam on unsupported Windows versions. Users are strongly encouraged to update to a newer Windows 10 or 11 version to ensure Steam and its games continue functioning properly beyond the January 1st cutoff date.
This change is necessary because core Steam features rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome that no longer functions on older Windows. Future Steam versions will also require Windows features and security updates only present in Windows 10 and later. With Microsoft having ended security updates and technical support for Windows 7 in 2020 and Windows 8.1 in 2023, these older operating systems are increasingly vulnerable to new malware exploits when connected to the internet. This malware can negatively impact PC performance, cause Steam and games to crash, or be used to steal Steam account credentials. Updating to a supported Windows version is highly recommended for all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to continue securely running Steam.
Source:
Steam FAQ
This change is necessary because core Steam features rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome that no longer functions on older Windows. Future Steam versions will also require Windows features and security updates only present in Windows 10 and later. With Microsoft having ended security updates and technical support for Windows 7 in 2020 and Windows 8.1 in 2023, these older operating systems are increasingly vulnerable to new malware exploits when connected to the internet. This malware can negatively impact PC performance, cause Steam and games to crash, or be used to steal Steam account credentials. Updating to a supported Windows version is highly recommended for all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to continue securely running Steam.
71 Comments on Steam Ends Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 Support
EDIT: just went to look and the download now links to a SteamDeck image? Perhaps they have now merged the SteamOS and SteamDeck into one distro package. It's been a little while since I last played around with it.
Well the last straw was obs studio flickering on recordings you'd never see the flickering if you watched what was being recorded either they just showed up on replay.
Probably caused by another app's polling
Indicator-cpufreq is/ was used to get rid of the sluggish performance pretty much same as windows high performance mode toggle.
Could of also been a combination or clash with psensor seeing it's more likely it's polling that caused the flickering.
But either way linux is just more irritation than anything I'm not antiwindows that badly yet :laugh:
Which is why I still have a Win 7 and 8.1 PC so Steam you can cut support.
I can find ways to enjoy old games like physical CD.
For those of us that take the time to learn stuff, we know most of the stuff above is *rap. Enjoy your windows.
Hell I've seen ppl w dell xps on reddit to where some parts didn't work in w11 that worked a-ok in linux!!
I grew up with Windows 98. I didn't like XP so I went linux but I consider Windows 7 being the best Windows overall and that's when I came back to use Windows again, because it was simply the best OS at the time IMO.
Of course I moved on as it's no longer supported, but if it was indefinitely updated I would probably keep using it. I feel like Windows 7 was the most practical OS ever made.
But to be honest, I consider Windows 11 second best, despite garbage UI which really needs an overhaul. Thank dog there are software which allows start menu and taskbar improvements at least.
Global statcounter says differently about linux
Linux only has a user base of win-8.1 one of the most dreaded os's outside of win-8 lol
If you add to linux unknown os #'s you'll only get to win-7 current users but I doubt it's that high in reality but will give them a little slack seeing steam is pretty much giving linux a little boost with their support.
It's really a vacation from os breaking updates
Hell if my two win-7 machines x99 & x299 weren't in storage I'd be using them daily still without any care about the fearmongering about the hacking bugger man is coming to get me if I connect to the internet :laugh:
Frankly Vista was #1 and win-7 was #2 but this is only because win-7 free upgrade introduced the crazy ass libraries feature adding a lot of confusion adding so many shortcuts to files making some think damn all my files doubled :eek:
Even better my ancient Creative X-Fi Titanium works without a hiccup on linux while using EasyEffects in place of Creative Console which is a big miss on win 10 and 11.
To the ones that are spending time jumping from windows to windows My last Windows 7 started for a first time in 2011 on Phenom II 955 X4 with Radeon 4850 moved across several GPU-s GTX460,GTX470,GTX560Ti , Radeon 280X , GTX 1070 , GTX 1080Ti got cloned from 500GB Hitachi HDD to an MX100 SSD , MX200 , MX500 got bump on the CPU with Phenom X6 1100T then jumped to another platform i7-5775C and managed to jump year and a half ago on my current machine Ryzen 5800X3D.
So I did not reinstalled my OS for more than a decade and I do hope this will not change with Linux.
Laugh as much as you wish but this was the best OS Microsoft ever did. And every time someone tells me about security vulnerabilities on Windows I ask him why he don't use MAC or Chromium OS or just stick to your Android Tablet and don't think about security issues , cause the biggest security issue is the user not the OS.
The world is also swimming as fast away from upgradable Windows/x86 and local software towards SOCs non Windows and cloud based stuff faster than a pool clears out with a floater in it so we all might as well get used to it.
Could be the holly grail for some Windows 7 users - who refused even a free update to Windows 10/11. Tho, the majority - still using Windows 7/8.1 - are probably seniors - who couldn't care less about gaming (maybe just some Solitaire or other lite games like that).
According to the official announcement it should continue to work in the near future. But one day it will probably just stop launching, as was the case with WinXP.Don't you mean Win9x? 64 MB was the minimum requirement for XP when it was introduced. A fully updated XP Home takes 300 MB on its own. Checked this today.You could try Mypal68, a fork of Firefox 68 which runs on XP. FF68 originally only required SSE2.