In March 2023, Steam announced that it would stop supporting Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 for Steam Client from January 1, 2024. Well, the new year is here, and with that, the company will not support these operating systems for the application.
On the support page regarding the matter, Steam says, “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.”
Why is Steam dropping support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1?
According to Steam, it is taking this step as the “core features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows.” Furthermore, the company states “future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”
In Steam Hardware & Software Survey: December 2023, Steam found that only 0.89% of people using Steam use Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. So, a very small amount of people will be affected by the latest change. The company expects Steam Client and games to run on these operating systems “for some time” after January 1, 2024.
If people using these versions of the OS want to continue using Steam without any issues, they’ll most likely have to upgrade to a new PC because systems running these operating systems might not have the hardware to run Windows 10 and Windows 11.
