As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. After that date, existing Steam Client installations on these operating systems will no longer receive updates of any kind including security updates. Steam Support will be unable to offer users technical support for issues related to the old operating systems, and Steam will be unable to guarantee continued functionality of Steam on the unsupported operating system versions.

In order to ensure continued operation of Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users should update to a more recent version of Windows. We expect the Steam client and games on these older operating systems to continue running for some time without updates after January 1st, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.

This change is required as core features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows. In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.

We strongly encourage all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to update sooner rather than later. Microsoft ended security updates and technical support for Windows 7 in January 2020 and for Windows 8.1 in January 2023. Computers running these operating systems, when connected to the internet, are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched. 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.

  • Toes♀@ani.social
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    6 months ago

    What do you think causes these people to hold on?

    Windows 10 is free, it takes hardly any technical skill to upgrade. Linux is a great idea too for tech savvy users.

    • conorab@lemmy.conorab.com
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      6 months ago

      What do you think causes people to hold on?

      If it isn’t on fire yet don’t fix it, probably. I’ve heard of people still using Vista, which is certainly a choice.

      Windows 10 is free

      It’s not free legally in Australia, the US and I’m guessing the EU (I think Portugal is a. exception here). The rest I have no idea. The legal free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 ended some time ago even though Microsoft will still accept those keys. That said, if you’re willing to deal with the activation watermark you don’t even need to crack Windows to make it work without a licence. 😉

      Linux is a great idea for tech savvy users.

      I was never able to get past the “I need a Windows partition stage” because there would always be obe game that I couldn’t play. It’s making great strides though and is one hell of a rabbit hole to jump down!

      • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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        6 months ago

        I heard through the grapevine and definitely not by experience that there are many easy ways to remove the watermark too