JANUARY 1 2019 ENDS Windows XP and Windows Vista Support vs GAMES LIBRARY

[grzesstasiak]

"Starting on January 1 2019, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. This means that after that date the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.
The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows. In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 7 and above."

OK So tell me one thing.
What will happen to our games in our library that require to run Windows XP/Vista.
For example, Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition.

Will they become useful and unplayable?
Since let's say I never played this game - I never installed it from Steam. Then what ? How do you allow me to use the product for which I spent the money?
I have a computer to run this game, but I will not have the installation tool - NEW STEAM CLIENT.
What will you do? Take off the DRM security for these titles or leave the offline client version for older computer/systems owned by users?

PS> I'm not talking about games using DOSBox.

Peace for all old fashioned players
Gregscorp

[WolfEisberg]

All my games that were made for XP/Vista work great on Windows 10. Heck I have games that were made for Windows 95/98 that I got on Steam when Valve was still supporting Windows 95 through Millunium, and even when they dropped support for Windows 95 through Millunium the games still worked on what ever Windows OS I was using.

[Xaelath]

You can run those game on compability mode...

[Jerry]

My planned strategy is to keep a version of the client saved and in offline mode to run on a Windows XP PC. My first experiments with this went satisfying. One needs to have run Steam successfully at least once on the computer before 2019 though, as the first launch is accompanied by a forced version update (the files can later be reverted).

P.S.: To those claiming otherwise: There are several games, among those also some on the Steam Store, that do not function properly or at all with the compatibility modes of later systems and need a real Windows XP. Due to their age, most of these do no longer enjoy support updates.
A recommandable exception would be THQ Nordic, who recently patched the game Desperados to work on Windows 7 and higher - which it did not before. In this case, the issues were not caused by Windows XP itself missing, but a Windows plugin, that was discontinued after XP being required.

[grzesstasiak]

Eisber; With a hand on your heart, tell me that you did not have to make any upgrades and fixes to play with this games because this is unfeasible for those old versions of games that reside on Steam. This is not GOG.
For starters, it's a tedious job to prepare the game to run without any problems.
Most old players use WMware, Virtual PC or simply fire their old computer with old systems on board.

Xaelath: In most situations, set only compatibility mode not working. Belive me.

Jerry: This strategy can work. Which version of the client do you use?
And how you add games to the offline library. Are you installing on the current version and transferring data to the old computer?

[Jerry]

Originally posted by grzesstasiak:

Jerry: This strategy can work. Which version of the client do you use?
And how you add games to the offline library. Are you installing on the current version and transferring data to the old computer?

I was lucky enough to still have a working version from before monday on a hard drive, that I could capture, so client version June 18 (don't ask me for the number, would have to check later).
For installing files, yup, download on my Windows 8.1, and then transporting it over. Tried it. Works. :-)

I am actually able to do short logins too, as long as I don't stay around long enough for the version update to finish. This is the first time, my slow 1000kb internet connection is an actual advantage.

P.P.S.: It goes without saying, that online games are out of question with this solution.

[grzesstasiak]

Thx for info Jerry.
I sent you an invitation.
If you were kind enough to send me this golden old version Steam client before BLACK MONDAY I will be very grateful. I send you my email.

[Jerry]

Phew, we're talking about 600 MB of data here... and an upload speed of 15 Kilobyte on my side. This might become a problem.
I'll try to figure out, which files are actually required for a version downgrade, so I can shrink it down to a reasonable size. But the package folder alone has 140 MB... Don't know, if I can promise to you to make this work. For now, remember to store your current version somewhere before the end of the year.

[Xaelath]

Originally posted by grzesstasiak:

Eisber; With a hand on your heart, tell me that you did not have to make any upgrades and fixes to play with this games because this is unfeasible for those old versions of games that reside on Steam. This is not GOG.
For starters, it's a tedious job to prepare the game to run without any problems.
Most old players use WMware, Virtual PC or simply fire their old computer with old systems on board.

Xaelath: In most situations, set only compatibility mode not working. Belive me.

Jerry: This strategy can work. Which version of the client do you use?
And how you add games to the offline library. Are you installing on the current version and transferring data to the old computer?

I haven't play any game that have compability issues... Yet.

I hope i don't encounter any.

I kinda understand why steam stop supporting it.

It's similar of why Windows stop supporting older version too or something like Console closing its server support on older generations..

There's no choice though, only alternative can be made.

[grzesstasiak]

Yeap. I know its 600 -700 mb.
I have 3 machines with Steam installed. I will see which one has the older version.

Thx for all

[Jerry]

If you find one, keep it save and secure. :-)
I really regret, I don't help you, but you propably realize, that an upload of around 10 hours is a lot to ask for (and that#s not even taking into account, that my free mail adress won't me allow me to put all of this into a single one).
Ten years ago, I might have considered to share the old version on Emule or Torrent, but the last time I checked (which is at least three years ago too), I barely found living servers for any of those.

[grzesstasiak]

Ok :-)