Steam will still run on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 for some time

[AyaSensei067]

UPDATE: Right now, Steam has officially ended support Windows 7,8 and 8.1 which means these older operating systems are no longer receiving updates (or security updates) from the client.

Now this does NOT mean that the client will prevent from running on Windows 8.1 and older, it will still run for quite some time, but due to lack of updates or security updates from the client as I said before, PCs running 8.1 and older are more vulnerable to new malwares.

I understand that some users choose not to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11 because they think It's bad or buggy blah blah blah. Now I have been using Windows 11 on my laptop since It's launch in 2021 and I have to say that Windows 11 has been getting more stable and better.

But at the moment, I just don't understand that people creating topics don't complain about Microsoft dropping support for Windows 7 and 8.1 and then they think It's Valve's fault.

I have Windows 7 on my desktop PC and I'm able to browse the web just fine using Firefox, Firefox 115 is the last version supported on 7, 8 and 8.1 but Firefox said that users will move to the Extended Support Release (ESR) to continue receiving security updates until 2024/09 (September 2024)

Edit 2024/09/14: Mozilla extended support for Windows 7 until March 2025 (previously September 2024) though I appreciate the extra 6 months of support, hopefully they'll continue to support it even after March 2025.

Hey everyone, if you haven't checked Steam's Windows 7 and 8 support website recently, as of 2023/12/31, Steam has expected that the client will still run on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 after 2024/01/01 for some time however, they're unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.

[Chika Ogiue]

They haven't actually promised anything, it's just people didn't understand the original message. Nothing has changed. Valve have still done what they originally said they would: dropped support as of Jan 1. Now when the Steam client (eventually) breaks on the aforementioned obsolete OSes, Valve will not waste any time or money trying to fix it.

[AyaSensei067]

I am aware that the client will break on older Windows versions, and yes they said that they expect the client to continue running on these older operating systems for quite some time without updates as I said before, but we'll find out

[I>U]

It was broken for, like, 3 years already, mate.

Starting with harmless things like preventing Vulkan driver from caching to messing with shutdown without "-s" and "-f" flags promted.

Even if that message is real, it's yet anopther cheap talk from Valve. The real masters here are Alphabet and it's for them to decide.

[zero254]

Originally posted by I>U:

It was broken for, like, 3 years already, mate.

Starting with harmless things like preventing Vulkan driver from caching to messing with shutdown without "-s" and "-f" flags promted.

Even if that message is real, it's yet anopther cheap talk from Valve. The real masters here are Alphabet and it's for them to decide.

I truly miss the ability to disable web browser on every os.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by AyaSensei067:

Hey everyone, if you haven't checked Steam's Windows 7 and 8 support website recently, as of 2023/12/31, Steam has promised that the client will still run on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 after 2024/01/01 for some time however, they're unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.

Did you also miss the part where they said they can't guarantee functionality after that date?

Your cherry picking.

I'd focus on that last part instead of the first part.

[AyaSensei067]

I actually typed that on purpose.

[miakisfan]

I just checked the Dragon Age Inquisition requirements. It says that on Jan. 1 it will only work with Windows 10 and up.

Might want to do some checking folks ... just saying.

Sidenote: it really is a damn shame there can't be a violin playing in the background of all these Windows 7 and 8.1 topics.

[lsdninja]

Originally posted by miakisfan:

I just checked the Dragon Age Inquisition requirements. It says that on Jan. 1 it will only work with Windows 10 and up.

Might want to do some checking folks ... just saying.

Sidenote: it really is a damn shame there can't be a violin playing in the background of all these Windows 7 and 8.1 topics.

"Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions."

Is the exact wording. They put that in there because people like kingjames488 can't wrap their heads around the idea that, in a DRM environment, the requirements of the DRM client supercede those of the game itself.

[InfernusMatrix]

If your DRM needs Windows 10 or newer than that's not an OS or game I need to support.

[lsdninja]

Originally posted by InfernusMatrix:

If your DRM needs Windows 10 or newer than that's not an OS or game I need to support.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpDeleteAccount

[InfernusMatrix]

Edge lord needs attention. XD

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by AyaSensei067:

I actually typed that on purpose.

I'm aware, yet you obviously are more focused on the "it will still work" part.

Here's something that you may or may not know. Windows XP and Windows Vista were also dropped on January 1st. The kicker? It worked until about March.


So yeah, it will still work on Windows 7, until about March.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by InfernusMatrix:

If your DRM needs Windows 10 or newer than that's not an OS or game I need to support.

News flash. That's how Steam has always worked. There are games that will run without Steam running. To test this, all you need to do is click on the EXE. If the game launches, you're golden. If it brings up the Steam login dialogue, that means that that game requires Steam to be running in order to play.

Steam is DRM. It functions the same way now as it did in 2003 and it doesn't matter what OS you are using.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by AyaSensei067:

I am aware that the client will break on older Windows versions, and yes they said that they expect the client to continue running on these older operating systems for quite some time without updates as I said before, but we'll find out

You smuggled a 'quite' in there..
You're reading what you want to read, not what is there.
Some time can mean a day, a week, a month, or 6 months.
If it fol,lows what happened with XP.. you may have as much as 3 monthsbefore logging in becomes impossible. And playing games will be broken well before that

[AyaSensei067]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by AyaSensei067:

I am aware that the client will break on older Windows versions, and yes they said that they expect the client to continue running on these older operating systems for quite some time without updates as I said before, but we'll find out

You smuggled a 'quite' in there..
You're reading what you want to read, not what is there.
Some time can mean a day, a week, a month, or 6 months.
If it fol,lows what happened with XP.. you may have as much as 3 monthsbefore logging in becomes impossible. And playing games will be broken well before that

I've recently started building a new PC, however It's unlikely if I'm going to upgrade my machine to Windows 10 or 11. I could upgrade to Windows 10 on my desktop machine since It's specs are decently good however that may not be the case, but I have a laptop and it runs Windows 11 just fine.

The reason why people upgrade to a newer operating system (like Windows 11) is not because of security updates, but rather because programs are no longer supported on older operating systems which is a much bigger security risk.