Another warning for Steam users; End of support for Windows 7 and 8 starts in 2024
Steam users who use computers equipped with Windows 7 or 8 will no longer have access to the platform from January 1, 2024.
Valve, as Steam’s support company and the creator of successful and large titles like Half-Life or Counter-Strike, has officially announced the end of support for some versions of Windows.
Microsoft ended support for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in January 2023. These operating systems are no longer officially supported, which means they will not receive security updates or new features. Other companies like Google and Microsoft have announced support for some of their software products for these operating systems.
Valve has two reasons to end support for Windows 7 and 8 users:
- Steam uses a modified version of Google Chrome. Since Google has ended support for Windows 7 and 8, newer versions of the Chrome browser are no longer available on devices using these operating systems.
- Newer versions of Steam use security and insecure features that are only available on Windows 10 or newer versions of this operating system.
Valve recommends that Steam users upgrade their devices to newer versions of Windows. Most computers running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 can be upgraded to Windows 10 because the prerequisites for installing these operating systems are almost the same.
GHacks writes, upgrading to Windows 11 is likely not possible for many devices running Windows 7 and 8.1 because Microsoft has changed the installation prerequisites for this desktop operating system.
Therefore, after Steam’s support for Windows 7 and 8.1 ends, users of these operating systems will no longer be able to use the aforementioned platform. However, another option that Valve did not mention is installing Linux on older computers.
