In early 2023, users with older PCs received bad news: Valve announced that Steam would no longer support Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 in 2024. After this announcement from Valve, consumers could either upgrade their PC or continue using the platform without getting updates.
Valve reached this conclusion after noticing that several consumers were using Windows 10 and 11. The majority of Steam users (95.57%) currently use Windows 10 and Windows 11, so there should be little interruption from this change. According to the official support page, the Steam launcher will no longer support Windows 7.8 and 8.1 operating systems after January 1, 2024.
That indicates that the operating systems’ services have been stopped for the time being. This assistant package includes installation instructions, system requirements, and solutions to technical problems. Users highlighted that Windows 7 Steam notifications were not supported. Microsoft discontinued security updates for Windows 8.1 in January 2023, and for Windows 7, it was discontinued earlier in 2020, significantly impacting this choice. Based on data collected on Steam and opt-in surveys, Valve made this choice in response to a discernible shift in user preferences. In the areas where the most users live, the platform is focusing its attention.
Updates, including security updates, will no longer be available for existing Steam client installations on these operating systems after this date. Customers utilizing outdated operating systems may not get technical support from Steam support. Steam support has stated that this action has serious ramifications. Also, Steam cannot ensure that its features will continue to function on unsupported operating systems.
