Valve drops Steam support for legacy OS'

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Valve drops support for Steam Client for
Windows 7, 8, 8.1
Official cut off is January 1st 2024

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/valve-is-ending-support-for-steam-on-these-windows-versions

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-800A

[vekinuma]

I mean, it makes sense. Not only that, Windows 7 at this point has limited software support. People who are used to limited software might as well switch to Linux.

[Illusion of Progress]

Yet another notch against the viability of Windows 7. Not unexpected, given Windows 7 will be four years out of support by that time, and Windows 8.1 will be a year out (and Windows 8/8.1 had even smaller market shares than Windows 7, which made dropping support for them come easier/sooner), but still sad to see, as Windows 7 was what I feel was the last if its kind, the last of a "proper" (for lack of better terms) traditional desktop Windows OS, and maybe the last pretty good Windows version. Windows 10/11 feel tolerable at best comparatively, even if they have some nice features Windows 7 sorely lacks (search being the prime one).

It's almost like watching Windows XP fade away again, but worse. At least when that happened there was a pretty decent version past it.

Ah well, tech ever evolves and changes.

[White_Red_Dragons]

I find it kinda scummy because when I downloaded steam and bought games they all specifically stated to work with win7. The same applies to winxp. They should at least give me the option to forever remain in offline mode or something.

[Illusion of Progress]

A minimal function client for depreciated operating systems would be ideal, I agree. I'm not sure how "practical" (say, from a coding perspective) this is, given the DRM-like nature of Steam though.

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by White_Red_Dragons:

I find it kinda scummy because when I downloaded steam and bought games they all specifically stated to work with win7. The same applies to winxp. They should at least give me the option to forever remain in offline mode or something.

To be fair on this, those statements were probably true for a long time and anyone who bought a game on seven but hasn't played it yet, it might be their own fault and if they all of a sudden want to play it now might just be saying that BECAUSE they were told they can't. Not saying this is you either.

Also that statement probably doesn't matter as much now because a whole lot of thise games still work perfectly fine on current oses so the need for Windows 7 is still not there.

[Zerofool]

If they release a version of the client at the end of 2023 with disabled auto-update, that would be good enough for me. I don't need the store portion of the client to work, just the ability to download and launch my games. I'd be fine using a CLI/Console client for this, if needed.
I use my W7 machine for some very specific things, which are impossible on newer Windows versions.
For instance, I use the iZ3D driver to play some games in 3D, and a handful of some older games only run fine with that driver, they're broken with the alternatives (Tridef, 3D Vision, etc.), but iZ3D only works on W7. Basically that's my only option if I want to play these specific games in 3D.
That's why I hope Valve will provide some option for edge cases like this. I don't want to be forced into buying additional copies of my games from GOG, or even worse...

[Crash [LV]]

Will we get a full refund for all our games that will become unplayable ? Or do we need to take it to the court ?

[FREEBIE FANTASY BLISS BOMB]

Originally posted by White_Red_Dragons:

I find it kinda scummy because when I downloaded steam and bought games they all specifically stated to work with win7. The same applies to winxp. They should at least give me the option to forever remain in offline mode or something.

You can. I have a pentium 4 AMD Radeon setup that runs windows XP and steam still launches in offline mode to this day.

There's a red message across the top of the app that reads "Steam will quit working on Windows XP in 0 days"

There's hundreds of games installed too. I've tried most of them and they actually still work.

This probably only works because it was setup while steam was supported still. I don't think there's an option to set it up that way unless you were already setup before support dropped.

[leh2012]

I think that those news are awful! I want to be able to still use Win7, at least be able to download my games and play them... I dont use most of those fancy features connected to chrome anyway

[Crash [LV]]

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by Crash LV:

Will we get a full refund for all our games that will become unplayable ? Or do we need to take it to the court ?

Ask the Win98/Windows XP/Windows Vista users

The short answer is no. A. Most games will still be playable or have workarounds, which is pretty normal for PC gaming. B. You weren't promised perpetual for support for your favorite OS.

People have already floated this nonsense with Win98 and XP. You're kidding yourself if you think Windows 7 presents different circumstances.

There is a difference - it concerns my personal interests.
I mean if Valve does not want my money anymore I could just use that spare money to sue them, it's cheaper here in the East and I have to do another court case anyway.
But we'll see how things will turn out by Valve's deadline for this.

[Tiberius]

Win7 makes up very small percentage of steam users, no?

[Lixire]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Win7 makes up very small percentage of steam users, no?

Windows 7 64 bit - 1.43%
Indeed, supporting Win7 or in general, old OSes. is far more of a liability than an actual benefit in terms of software development.

[Banana {JESUS IS LORD}]

'bout time

[Dude]

And how to understand it? Why should I lose access to my library, to my games that I paid for, just because someone decides to release an update and stop supporting these operating systems?

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Crash LV:

Will we get a full refund for all our games that will become unplayable ? Or do we need to take it to the court ?

Have fun wasting your money going to court.