The fated day has come: If you’re nonetheless utilizing Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 you may must improve to Windows 10 or 11 quickly, as Valve’s massively in style digital storefront, Steam, not formally helps these older working methods.
Valve first revealed that it might drop help for older Windows variations in a help web page posting final March. The message defined that as of January 1, 2024, Steam customers on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will not obtain new shopper updates of “any kind,” together with safety fixes. As a outcome, Valve is warning customers of those working system to improve “sooner than later” to keep away from malware and different malicious assaults.
In the publish, Valve additionally defined that Steam Support will not provide technical help for points associated to those older variations of Windows. Valve can also’t assure that Steam will stay useable on these older OSs shifting ahead.
However, to be clear, Valve isn’t flipping a swap and killing Steam on Windows 7. It’s simply saying that issues may begin to break quickly, and in the event that they do, they received’t get mounted.
“We expect the Steam client and games on these older operating systems to continue running for some time without updates after January 1st, 2024,” Valve wrote. “But we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.”
Why Steam is ending help for Windows 7
Valve says one predominant purpose for it chopping off help for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 is because of Google Chrome not supporting these older working methods. That’s an issue for Valve, as Steam depends on an embedded model of the browser. The firm behind Half-Life and Portal additionally talked about that future variations of the Steam shopper will “require” Windows options and safety updates solely present in Windows 10 and 11.
Valve ended its publish encouraging gamers to improve to Windows 10 or 11 quickly.
“Computers running these [older] operating systems, when connected to the internet, are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched,” Valve warned. “That malware can cause your PC, Steam, and games to perform poorly or crash. That malware can also be used to steal the credentials for your Steam account or other services.”
While some people may now be compelled to improve and even purchase a brand new PC to maintain enjoying on Steam, it appears cheap for Valve to maneuver ahead and depart behind Windows 7, which was launched all the way in which again in 2009. That’s a hell of a very long time in terms of know-how, and Valve supporting that OS for almost 15 years is spectacular.
However, for those who do improve to Windows 10, get able to improve once more quickly as Microsoft is winding down safety help for that OS in October 2025. As somebody holding on desperately to Windows 10, I’m counting the times.
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