STEAM NO SUPPORT ON XP AND VISTA: BUT... Questions I have?

[オリエ]

OK. So the news is that no more suport in Windows Xp and Vista.... BUT

I am still using WIN XP, and I have very good reasons for it (its my problem), but.... I have a lot fo questions:

-> recently the screenshot function (F12) stopped workign out of nowhere, and I was looking on the web, and everyone seemed to say, to use in settings, "Steam Beta Update"
As result, yesterday I was only introduced to the counter above on Steam winodw pointing how many days I can still use Steam.
-> now, for some reason, I was logged in my account, but I was not. Steam would login with my username and password,all correct, but I wa snot able to see my profile nor my provate stuff like screenshots.
-> turned out, I changed in settings, from "Steam Beta Update" to "NONE - opt out of all beta programs", and now I can access my account fully, and that counter disapeared.

My question is:
As I can afford to change out of nowhere of OS, even if Steam will not have suport on Win XP, will I still be able to play my games? no support, ok. But can I still play my games? I payed for them, and as much as some people might say "just update your OS" that is out of question for a lot of personal reasons. Because now I feel... I wasted money for nothing.

-> Is there a way to contact STEAM Support directly, like an e-mail?
because I need a solution regarding my screenshots. I have almost 8 500 screenshots, and due to a steam bug, it got deleted from my Hard-drive, luckily, fro some strange reason I woudl alwyas upload them on my cloud account. Going one by one picture..... is gonna take a some time to get it all back. I wanted to be able to get them all at once.
"Steamgrabber" option is a no-no, as I already tried it.

Please, would spome one be kindly enough to help me with these questions of mine?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

rvn515 の投稿を引用：

Eisberg の投稿を引用：

You didn't understand anything I said. Read it again.

They won't redesign everything clientside and serverside within I 2019 anyway, so they can do more in terms of support. There is false advertising by putting XP/Vista in requirements.

You do realize they can change the listing of system requirements for the client right??? Just like how Devs/Pubs can also change their listing of system requirements on their store pages as well.

rvn515 の投稿を引用：

Oh my god, it's not like you will use that legacy client, that one for sure.
1. Thank you for confirming Valve's right to tamper with their own software (Steam application) and doing more with Steam+older systems compatibility.
2. And when something goes wrong, you can return the game, and when something blatantly goes wrong, law of the country goes into account. Even after the announcement games were sold with XP/Vista promise. Yup, fair.
Second part: Why? Not really.
3. And there are laws for protecting consumers too. Damn, I feel like a terrorist now, merely by a thought about longer basic support for XP, sorry.
4. Games may work perfectly fine, Valve's client may be problematic.
5. You want to take this into extreme. All we need for older systems is downloading and starting those games, it's easier to maintain than community/chat/shop/etc. That can be maintained much longer.
6. You really like broken textures, widescreen bugs, high FPS breaking gravity or scripts, floating mouse pointer, broken shadows and you know what? I have perfect solution: run those games on native systems (that's another option available, at least. This is one thing, fixes are another thing, the more options the better), while Steam app won't work on them forever, I think that they can do more than now, point 5 above. It's funny how you are finding security problems for client, but 0 security problems for thirdy party patches workarounds :D And, it is Valve's job to fix their things, this is discussion about their app and what they can do with it.
7? Another exaggeration.
8?. Great that you like this discussion. Some users already decided to put scary tales into Valve's mouth about nightmare-inducing legacy client. Interestingly, it creates nightmares for some users too :D

It doesn't matter if i'm going to use it, or not...

1. Well yes, if you read the terms, it implys, and states Valve have rights to make changes to their own client.

2. Laws can only go so far, and if it's a agreement you agree to, and broke it, you can't complain about it really, since you agree to it, that like if I borrow your car, and I said I pay for any damages as long I have it, and sign the paper work agreeing to it, then any damages that happens to the car while I borrow it I must pay you back for it, which was a given, and I don't get the right to deny, and can't really complain since I agree to it. The same rules apply if I/you buy a game on Steam, if I/you broke the agreement, of owning the game for more than 14days, and played for over 2hrs, they can deny me/you of the refund, and if I/you do a charge back, they have the right to lock my/your account, as that's also in the agreements, to pervent fraud, so we must follow what we agree to, as these terms, and agreements are not for show, they're there for a reason.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6687-HJVM-8966

3. As I said above in number 2, the law can only go so far, if you purposely, or etc trying to harm, or whatever reason, you're more likely to be stuck with the legal fees if you try to take Valve to count, if you don't have a solid case. Such as the Australian laws, which Steam had to pay for, but they accepted what happen, and to ensure people get the rights to make a proper choice, you're given a window of rethinking your decisions if you make an mistake, such as buying a game you can't play, not enjoying the game you bought, or you bought the wrong game.

4. That's basically the case, but it's not like there isn't any work arounds to your issue that you can't do yourself. So really you have to deal with the changes, as not everyone get what they want in this world.

5. Well if you're worry about the community, market, chat, or looking on the store, you can use the broswer for that, as I don't believe you will be block from that, you might run into problems for media content that's about it. The client, will just be the end of it, so nothing can be done, unless they choose to change their minds, and again, you could just use the broswer for all your community stuff, as I don't believe it will be much of an issue.

6. As I said, not one game I have encounter that are severely broken as you're claiming, and so far most, or if all of the old games works just fine on linux, newer versions of windows, or by doing an workaround. So far practically all of the old games runs, but again have not encounter those severely issues. If you want the Devs/Pubs to do something about their old games, you need to contant them, as they're the ones who made, or owns the IP rights to them, as they can make the changes at any time as they please. Valve can only sell on behalf of them, they can't do anything to their software until they get permission from the Devs/Pubs themselves that they can make the changes as they please, as of yet they're not given such permission, and Valve themselves haven't requests those persmisson either, so you need to contant the Devs/Pubs to get a hold of Valve, to make the changes, but if the Devs/Pubs don't want to do anything, then nothing can be done.

7. Not really, that's an example that you can't force a company to do something, just because you want them to.

8. Not really, since almost all, or all of them works outside of XP just fine, if you have an issue try asking in the game community forum, or google search, as for all you may know it could be a simple drive was need, or just an error on your part.

rvn515 の投稿を引用：

Dr.Shadowds 🐉 の投稿を引用：

If Steam is willing to allow you to download from broswer side, they will make it so, but so far they are not into doing so, you can try requesting by making a ticket for Steam/Valve to do this, but it's ultimately comes down to their decisions. We can't make them do anything, since we agree to them. I have listed workarounds above at the bottom of my post #157, but that's up to you if you're willing to do them.

Another juicy part - we can't do anything, and yet, here we are, Steam forum. What's the point of Steam forum? Expressing opinions, maybe? Making suggestions?

Steam forum is for community purposes, such as seeking help from others, meeting new people, trading, reporting, etc... Just like any other forum you go to basically.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Black Blade の投稿を引用：

So well, for the most part, that was a waste of time, clearly not really tested any of them and just said they don't work
Out of all the list that I was able to test only 2 were having any type of issue, and I assume that most likely it fixable as so many others

But this does rise a point how many games really really have issues when running out of XP?
Becouse most of the games given so far work fine or fixble

I went ahead with the Mad Payne, and did a few seconds look, found a guide to fix the sound issue, and it's really the Devs that mess up, but someone made a conveter to fix their mistakes on the sound issue, which only took a minute to do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=593538796

Download patch.
Unzip the content to the main game folder Mad Payne.
Run the .bat
Press C and wait until it say finish.
Press E to exit out of it.
Run game and enjoy.

I double check the zip files what exactly it does, not seeing any issues with it that I notice, but within the zip file there a text note stating this issue was way back in Vista, but he have made patches for this game in the past.

The other games I do not own, so I can not go ahead, and check them out for you, until I gotten them, but it seems people on the forms are quick to blame, and give up without doing a few seconds search. I will play MP for a little bit, and if I find anything else wrong, I edit this post, stating the issues, if I find them 1st.

[Black Blade]

Dr.Shadowds 🐉 の投稿を引用：

I went ahead with the Mad Payne, and did a few seconds look, found a guide to fix the sound issue, and it's really the Devs that mess up, but someone made a conveter to fix their mistakes on the sound issue, which only took a minute to do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=593538796

Download patch.
Unzip the content to the main game folder Mad Payne.
Run the .bat
Press C and wait until it say finish.
Press E to exit out of it.
Run game and enjoy.

I double check the zip files what exactly it does, not seeing any issues with it that I notice, but within the zip file there a text note stating this issue was way back in Vista, but he have made patches for this game in the past.

The other games I do not own, so I can not go ahead, and check them out for you, until I gotten them, but it seems people on the forms are quick to blame, and give up without doing a few seconds search.

I was assuming as much
Just 3:30 AM so did not want to try looking and fixing now
Also I know the game is pretty buggy over all so not too suprised it will have a bug

Same for the outher

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Black Blade の投稿を引用：

I was assuming as much
Just 3:30 AM so did not want to try looking and fixing now
Also I know the game is pretty buggy over all so not too suprised it will have a bug

Same for the outher

Haven't encounter an issue as of yet, playing at 1920x1080, with all settings to the max, and all sounds works as intended, I played until I died which was the abandoned underground, but will play more later, to see if I can find any issues, and also do video comparesion as well to see if there was any bugs I was not aware of in game.

[harrry]

It could be in some areas this could cost Steam a lot of money. They allready found they cannot do what they like when the Australian courts made them pay several million dollars for thinking they wrothe the rules.

[WolfEisberg]

harrry の投稿を引用：

It could be in some areas this could cost Steam a lot of money. They allready found they cannot do what they like when the Australian courts made them pay several million dollars for thinking they wrothe the rules.

Nobody is going to have a law that is going to force a business to support old, outdated, software in perpetualality.

[JackBurton]

Infinite Clouds の投稿を引用：

Most of you seem to be making your arguments from the point of view of "it's time to upgrade your system" because of the OP and this is the problem with merging topics.

This is 99% about people having a designated retro machine and maybe 1% -- if even -- of people who are still actually using Windows XP as a daily driver

There ARE games that, while they might run on newer OS, will have glitches and bugs on anything but the original OS or even specific hardware.
[...]
These games work under the the platforms they were designed for and unless Valve intends to get into the business of making fixes and compatability tweaks the way GOG does for games sold on their store they should do one of two things...

1) Leave an unsupported, 'use-at-your-own-peril', legacy client so folks can install Windows XP games on their retro machines .
2) Allow us to download .exe installers for XP games in our libraries on Windows 7+ machine that can be transferred over and installed without Steam on our retro machine.
[...]
The problem is not being able to install your retro XP games on your retro XP machine -- which many of us have kept.

My brother from another mother.

[76561198001062896]

Eisberg の投稿を引用：

harrry の投稿を引用：

It could be in some areas this could cost Steam a lot of money. They allready found they cannot do what they like when the Australian courts made them pay several million dollars for thinking they wrothe the rules.

Nobody is going to have a law that is going to force a business to support old, outdated, software in perpetualality.

yep, only in ppls head at best

then again it seems some ppl refuse to understand cold facts

[CZBGR Icepick]

BAT EMPEROR OF EGYPT の投稿を引用：

Its very possible that Steam Overlay is not loading with your game. Some games it won't load

Oh geez, forgot about that. Usually that's not an issue, but for a couple games people have, myself included, I'll be sure to test this out. Not exactly XP related, but there's another angle.

EDIT: actually, not even that was any go on Win 7 either. It might have been an Intel thing. Don't know. I think the devs screwed up their codes.

[TorMazila]

The only reason I'd be running 32bit WinXP is that it was first ever (and last) WinNT where they've fixed DOS games compatibility - that is you've got no problems with sound (compared to no sound in WinNT4.0/2000). Steam DRM isn't used by any of that games! Though I've been using XP 64bit ever since I got a hold of it. Oh, maybe the other one - notebooks from pre-2000 era with 128M RAM - but win2000 i better for them :).

And there are gazillion reasons why not to use 32bit WinXP - starting with no support for newer hardware, 3GB memory limit (yeah, there is PAE with driver issues and such), no support for lots of new tech on the web, newer browsers must either be compiled from source or you're stuck with vulnerable versions.

I believe Steam should introduce "legacy" client with DRM-only functionality, that is no shop, no "big picture", VR, community, inventory, etc - only existing games library and install/uninstall. Not easy as it seems - I can easily imagine publishers breaking games with "patched" win-10-only versions of redistributable packages.

And there is just one tiny reason to continue 32-bit support - ReactOS, freeware open-source WinXP alternative.

[CZBGR Icepick]

TorMazila の投稿を引用：

I believe Steam should introduce "legacy" client with DRM-only functionality, that is no shop, no "big picture", VR, community, inventory, etc - only existing games library and install/uninstall. Not easy as it seems - I can easily imagine publishers breaking games with "patched" win-10-only versions of redistributable packages.

As much as legacy Steam is desired, Big Picture was never supported by XP anyway. The only takeaway from that is the loss of controller support functionality, but this is circumvented through emulators that you don't need either from Steam. I consider that a bit of a non-issue. I feel the point XP users are trying to make is that XP is not a broken system. Discouragement from it's security and vulnerability issues are basically the only thing holding it back. As for hardware, it might not be such a big deal. If the hardware still works, there's no need to upgrde it if you end up with unsupported components. XP was made for certain things of it's time.

And even if you upgraded to a new machine, you can still run the OS along with emulators. XP isn't going away.

TorMazila の投稿を引用：

And there is just one tiny reason to continue 32-bit support - ReactOS, freeware open-source WinXP alternative.

Steam is not supported in the current build of ReactOS. And you can use 64-bit ReactOS as well. Your alternative choices would be Ubunto or Zorin, both based on Linux anyway, and both free and in different flavors.

[Daedalus007]

Windows XP was released in October 2001. Almost 17 years ago.
Windows XP is 32-bit and limited to 4 GB of system memory unless you use a few custom workarounds.
Windows XP, even 'fully patched' is a danger to be online on the internet for any purpose due to how easily-exploitable it is and how the bandwidth/resources can be used to attack other computers in a 'botnet' attack.

If you still use Windows XP, please get the ♥♥♥♥ off the internet and come back when you start using Linux Mint or another Linux-based OS[www.pcsteps.com]. If you can't upgrade Windows, then just use Linux or disconnect. I'd recommend MacOS if gaming was ever a thing on it lmao.

Keep the WinXP computer disconnected and only use it to play Windows-exclusive older games; make sure you're completely physically disconnected from the internet whenever using WinXP. Nearly any older game that uses DirectX9 and/or runs offline should work fine in WinXP. Stick with single player and you'll be fine.

I fully understand having issues with getting fancy modern hardware and computing resources. Don't worry about that. What you should worry about is using a modern OS.

Linux Mint is completely open source and free GPL'd software so you can freely use/copy/modify as you like. There is no excuse.

The best thing you can do is do a final 'legacy' update for Steam on your Windows box, download a Linux Mint ISO, and then away you go.

There's easy ways to dual-boot on the same computer so you can switch back and forth. Disable all networking on your Windows XP install and then you're good to go.

[shiel]

BAT EMPEROR OF EGYPT の投稿を引用：

And not to mention that PLENTY of games don't even work on Windows 10. Like Call of Duty 2, Age of Mythology, Neverwinter Nights

Uh... I played CoD2 on Win 10 a few months back with no issues. Same with CoD1/UO.

You can stop lying through your teeth now.

[Daedalus007]

shiel の投稿を引用：

BAT EMPEROR OF EGYPT の投稿を引用：

And not to mention that PLENTY of games don't even work on Windows 10. Like Call of Duty 2, Age of Mythology, Neverwinter Nights

Uh... I played CoD2 on Win 10 a few months back with no issues. Same with CoD1/UO.
You can stop lying through your teeth now.

I believe they mean that Win8/8.1 and Win10 both removed the SecuROM driver service from the operating system and thus older games that depended on it for installation (Splinter Cell series) won't be able to install properly. Telling people to 'buy another copy' when they already own it on the original media isn't a good response to that.

Win10 has improved compatibility with older titles but there will always be some older stuff that just runs better on Win7 due to how it was originally designed.
Not to mention that Win10 will randomly remove programs because Microsoft says so. Or randomly replace crucial core driver files (hope you keep backups!). Or other shenanigans. No thank you. Linux Mint doesn't do any of that ^_^

I had to use a registry file to get Diablo 1 working on my Win7 system without the 'rainbow colors' issue. I've had to grab the official (legit) no-cd exe file for the game since installing it from my original CD wasn't working (maybe the media is rotting away?).

I'm so happy we're finally in an age where we aren't dependent on flimsy breakable terrible optical media as the only option for entertainment. AVGN did an amazing video on this and how DVDs and BluRays actually seem like a step backwards when it comes to respecting the consumer.

[Alex050]

You should try to buy games from GOG in the future. They have DRM Free games and you don't need a client to play them. Thats what i've been doing the last year.