- The Steam Client will not be able to work on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 from January 2024
- Some current Steam features already do not work on older Windows versions
- Valve says it’s doing this because older Windows versions cause many security risks
Following Microsoft’s ceasing of support for Windows 7,8, and 8.1 in January this year, Steam will stop supporting the app for these OSes starting in 2024.
Steam Will Stop Support for Old OSes
When it comes to online platforms for games purchased and played, Steam is often the first one to come into people’s minds. The Valve-owned app has been a staple of the PC gaming scene since the mid-2000s, a.k.a. the days of Windows XP. Of course, as Microsoft stopped support for the OS, so did Steam not long after. The years rolled by and more Windows operating systems have become old, therefore Steam announced it will be stopping support for operating systems up until Windows 10. This means that starting next year, the Steam Client will not be able to run on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1
“As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. After that date, the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows,” reads Valve’s announcement. “In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.”
What Is Valve’s Reasoning?
Steam’s latest versions already have features that do not work well on older versions of Windows. “The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome,” Valve explains. Additionally, Microsoft stopped support for Windows 7,8, and 8.1 in January this year, adding another reason for Valve’s decision.
With the lack of proper Windows updates for the older versions, they become more susceptible to security breaches. These could extend to Steam, so Valve does not want to take that risk. The devs explained that due to these security risks, future versions of Steam will require Windows’ latest features and security updates which will be available only in Windows 10 and above.
Fortunately, the stopping of the support for older Windows versions should not be too bad, as less than 2% of all steam users are on 7, 8, and 8.1 combined. Additionally, a lot of games currently do not support Windows 7 anyway. Newer games are all made with Windows 10 and 11 in mind.
Speaking of 10 and 11, Microsoft plans to focus its attention on these two for the coming years. In fact, Windows 10 might soon be put on life support, as the company plans to stop security updates for it in 2025. However, considering Windows 11’s launch in 2021 didn’t go very well, Microsoft would have a lot to do to make the OS attractive for users.
In the meantime, users of older Windows operating systems have until January 1 2024 to update to a more modern version if they want to continue having access to their Steam Client.
