As announced last year, Steam will no longer release any updates for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Read on to learn more.
Steam No Longer Supports Windows 7 and 8
Steam Urges Affected Users to Upgrade
In March of last year, Valve announced that Steam would stop supporting Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 once 2024 comes along. As of January 1, 2024, Steam clients on those operating systems (OS) no longer receive any updates, including security updates. MacOS 10.13 and 10.14 will also lose support from Steam on February 14.
Steam Support warns that while games may continue to be functional on these OS versions, they can’t guarantee that it will continue to do so. Additionally, Steam Support won’t be able to offer technical support for issues related to Windows 7, 8, and 8.11.
The change is due to Steam’s dependence on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer supports older Windows versions. Future Steam updates will require features from only Windows 10 or later.
Steam urges users of these older OS versions to upgrade, and highlights the risks of malware being heightened, as Microsoft has ended security updates and tech support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 over the last few years.
Affects Less Than 1% of Steam Users, According to Survey
Steam’s latest hardware and software survey shows that only less than 1% of Steam users are affected by this change. Only 0.68% of Steam users use Windows 7 64 bit, 0.06% for Windows 7, and 0.15% for Windows 8.1 64 bit.
Sources:
Steam Support on Windows 7 and Windows 8 Support
Valve ends Steam support for Windows 7 and Windows 8
