A couple of questions about Windows 7 in 2024.

[dias_flac_0g]

So it's been made clear that Steam will no longer support Windows 7 after Jan 2024.

But what exactly does this mean?

Does it mean that Steam simply won't get anymore updates? But we can still play our games in the "offline" mode?

Or does it literally mean that once Jan 2024 comes all of a sudden we wont be able to launch Steam at all and get an error message even while being offline? Currently the way Steam works is if we don't have an internet connection it will simply ask us if we want to use "offline" mode to play our games.

I did some googling but can't seem to find an answer to my specific question. All I find are people complaining (about the end of support) or the typical "Just upgrade to windows 10/11) people telling them to upgrade.

and yes before you anyone here tells me to upgrade, my main PC is a modern gaming rig with Windows 11.

I'm simply asking because I am using my old PC (8700k) as a Windows 7 PC for legacy games and just for the fun of it.

I recently formatted it and installed a clean copy of 7 of it with all the updates. So I would like to add some of my old Steam games on it.

Helpful comments will be greatly appreciated.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

you don't have to upgrade pc to switch fron win7 to 10

Well.. that's not entirely true. They might be using an old dual-core computer from the early 2000's with 4GB ram and that couldn't hope of doing very well running windows 10.

[Karumati]

Publicado originalmente por 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

you don't have to upgrade pc to switch fron win7 to 10

Well.. that's not entirely true. They might be using an old dual-core computer from the early 2000's with 4GB ram and that couldn't hope of doing very well running windows 10.

system requirements for win 7 and 10 are the same

[Steven Seagull]

Publicado originalmente por 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

you don't have to upgrade pc to switch fron win7 to 10

Well.. that's not entirely true. They might be using an old dual-core computer from the early 2000's with 4GB ram and that couldn't hope of doing very well running windows 10.

It does. I tried it. Core2Duo with 4GB RAM runs Win10 just fine. If you have an SSD. Even win11 runs fine on such machine.

[VahidSlayerOfAll]

started a windows 7 group so we can all help each other out https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Windows7ForeverUpdateNever

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Publicado originalmente por VahidSlayerOfAll:

started a windows 7 group so we can all help each other out https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Windows7ForeverUpdateNever

This has to be the single dumbest thing I have read all year. You shouldn't use Windows 7 forever. At some point you will have to upgrade.

[76561188078797539]

Publicado originalmente por 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

This has to be the single dumbest thing I have read all year. You shouldn't use Windows 7 forever. At some point you will have to upgrade.

I have a working PII system running Win95, that I occasionally fire up for things that don't really like emulations.

Please tell me more what I can and cannot do with my own hardware and software.

[Hobbit XIII]

Publicado originalmente por 76561198079797439:

Publicado originalmente por 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

This has to be the single dumbest thing I have read all year. You shouldn't use Windows 7 forever. At some point you will have to upgrade.

I have a working PII system running Win95, that I occasionally fire up for things that don't really like emulations.

Please tell me more what I can and cannot do with my own hardware and software.

I got some d and d generators over 20 years old and they too will not work on newer systems one day i'll reprogram to work on an offline browser / js .
Funny how old stuff / programs works.
There was a browser based game very popular years ago and they kept adding and adding to the core program and to the point even the original developers have no idea how to change the original code because it simply should not work technically with all the additions as well as some errors they did originally yet it keeps working.
As one of them said its like trying to untangle sellotape so we gave up and just build on it and it keeps working.

[Vitdom]

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

Publicado originalmente por 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

Well.. that's not entirely true. They might be using an old dual-core computer from the early 2000's with 4GB ram and that couldn't hope of doing very well running windows 10.

system requirements for win 7 and 10 are the same

That is not true. Windows 10 has different and higher system requirements:
At least 32 GigaBytes of secondary storage.
At least a monitor resolution of 800x600 pixels.
A CPU with PAE, NX and SSE2 instruction sets.

In addition 64-bit versions of Windows 10 also requires the following:
At least 2 GigaBytes of primary memory. (Also Windows 11 requirement)
CPU-support for CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF instructions.

[Karumati]

Publicado originalmente por Vitdom:

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

system requirements for win 7 and 10 are the same

That is not true. Windows 10 has different and higher system requirements:
At least 32 GigaBytes of secondary storage.
At least a monitor resolution of 800x600 pixels.
A CPU with PAE, NX and SSE2 instruction sets.

In addition 64-bit versions of Windows 10 also requires the following:
At least 2 GigaBytes of primary memory. (Also Windows 11 requirement)
CPU-support for CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF instructions.

That is basically nothing these days

[Lixire]

Publicado originalmente por Vitdom:

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

system requirements for win 7 and 10 are the same

That is not true. Windows 10 has different and higher system requirements:
At least 32 GigaBytes of secondary storage.
At least a monitor resolution of 800x600 pixels.
A CPU with PAE, NX and SSE2 instruction sets.

In addition 64-bit versions of Windows 10 also requires the following:
At least 2 GigaBytes of primary memory. (Also Windows 11 requirement)
CPU-support for CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF instructions.

CPU with PAE, NX and SSE2 is a thing already since 2003-2004.
Starting with the Athlon 64 or the later models of the Pentium 4
same goes to CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF as those are standard on virtually every CPU that came in the last 15-18 years

2GB of RAM is also a standard requirement, most computers these days ship with 4-8 on the low end while even budget gaming PCs come with 16GB

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Publicado originalmente por 76561198079797439:

Publicado originalmente por 🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊:

This has to be the single dumbest thing I have read all year. You shouldn't use Windows 7 forever. At some point you will have to upgrade.

I have a working PII system running Win95, that I occasionally fire up for things that don't really like emulations.

Please tell me more what I can and cannot do with my own hardware and software.

Speaking of please: Please re-read my words again. You quoted my words but you did not understand what I wrote. I will attempt to explain it the long way since you misunderstood my words: I specifically chose to use the word "shouldn't" for this reason. By me using "shouldn't" that means "Should not" as in: I am only voicing my thoughts and opinions that I think you should not do that. I did NOT say that you "Can not do that" or "You can't do that". Which also means I did not tell you what to do. That is why I used that word: So people can't assume that I'm telling them what to do. Because I am not.

You are free to do whatever you want with your computer and run any OS you want on it. However I think it is a bad idea to allow old operating systems access to the internet. Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, ETC. I think that all of those should not be allowed internet access for any reason even for a moment. I think it is far too dangerous.

[Vitdom]

Vista has UAC so it should be safer to connect to the internet as a Standard user / Limited user, provided you have Service-Pack 2 installed and an anti-malware suite.

It is very likely that the Steam update which will deprecate Windows 7 support will be released before January. I do not know if changing the system time and date would keep the Steam Offline-ticket from expiring but I would definitely back-up all old Steam games which do not support Windows 10 before december.

[Steven Seagull]

Publicado originalmente por Vitdom:

Publicado originalmente por Karumati:

system requirements for win 7 and 10 are the same

That is not true. Windows 10 has different and higher system requirements:
At least 32 GigaBytes of secondary storage.
At least a monitor resolution of 800x600 pixels.
A CPU with PAE, NX and SSE2 instruction sets.

In addition 64-bit versions of Windows 10 also requires the following:
At least 2 GigaBytes of primary memory. (Also Windows 11 requirement)
CPU-support for CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF instructions.

Since March 2019, Win7 requires SSE2 as well. If you didn't turn off Windows Update.
The standard Windows 11 booted for me even with 512MB RAM. It used the page file. Make sure you have an SSD.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Publicado originalmente por Steven Seagull:

Since March 2019, Win7 requires SSE2 as well. If you didn't turn off Windows Update.
The standard Windows 11 booted for me even with 512MB RAM. It used the page file. Make sure you have an SSD.

Now I know you're just trolling us. No one would use Windows 10 with 4GB of ram or even 512 MB. That's just stupid. Windows 10 needs at least 2~2.5 GB just for background processes and then they wouldn't be able to do anything with the computer. No games. No web browsing.

I think that the absolute minimum for a Windows 10 computer to actually use it as an actual computer (browsing, gaming) should be 8GB of system ram to even consider installing it.

[Vitdom]

Publicado originalmente por Steven Seagull:

Publicado originalmente por Vitdom:

That is not true. Windows 10 has different and higher system requirements:
At least 32 GigaBytes of secondary storage.
At least a monitor resolution of 800x600 pixels.
A CPU with PAE, NX and SSE2 instruction sets.

In addition 64-bit versions of Windows 10 also requires the following:
At least 2 GigaBytes of primary memory. (Also Windows 11 requirement)
CPU-support for CMPXCHG16B, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF instructions.

Since March 2019, Win7 requires SSE2 as well. If you didn't turn off Windows Update.
The standard Windows 11 booted for me even with 512MB RAM. It used the page file. Make sure you have an SSD.

Actually the SSE2 "requirement" is a bug introduced by a security update in May 2018:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-unexpectedly-drops-windows-7-support-for-some-ancient-cpus/

Windows 7 Convenience rollup 2016 does not need SSE2 support.

Yes, Windows 11 boots with 512 MB of RAM but it will not perform well, especially with user applications until you have at least 2 GB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQQklwwmiaE
Windows 10 on 1 GB of RAM memory seems to only limit the amount of open applications.