Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems, as of January 1, 2024, at 10 am. After this date, the Steam Client will no longer run on these versions of Windows and lose access to their games library. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products bought via Steam, affected users of Windows 7/8/8.1 will need to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11 to enjoy the Steam Client and its extensive Games Library, Workshop, and Community Market and Forums. Valve explained that it had to bring about the change, as the latest Steam features depend on a built-in version of Google Chrome, which is no longer supported on older iterations of Windows due to security concerns. “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. 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,” the company revealed via Steam’s Support Section. “The newest 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 features and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.” You can see the changes announced by the company in the latest Steam beta update, which reads, “Added “End of Life” alert for Windows 7/8/8.1. Steam Client support for these operating systems will end on Jan 1st, 2024 at 10am.” With the above change, Steam Client Beta users running Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 will now start getting alerts to switch or upgrade to a newer version of Windows. This alert is expected to extend to the regular Steam client too before the support goes away. According to Valve’s latest hardware survey, only around 2% of Steam’s user base is still using Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. The news to end support doesn’t come as a surprise, as Microsoft itself ended support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 in January 2023. These operating systems are now no longer supported, and they do not get any updates, be it technical or security, anymore. Earlier this month, even developer Epic Games ended Windows 7 and 8 support for Fortnite and recommended players on these operating systems use a cloud gaming service instead such as GeForce Now.
