• Steam is ending support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 PCs.
• Users still running these operating systems will have to upgrade or lose access to their Steam Client and in turn, their libraries of purchased games.
• Windows 7 had over 100 million users still running the system as of 2021, and Microsoft’s latest actions have made it more difficult than ever for users to upgrade.

The world’s favourite PC gaming marketplace will stop working on PCs operating on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 as of 1st January 2024.

Users still running the two operating systems past that date will not be able to launch the Steam Client, and will have to update to Windows 10 in order to keep using Steam on their machines and access their purchased games.

This is according to a short and sweet statement published by Valve on their Steam Support page.

Explaining the ceasing of service, Valve says “This change is required as core features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows.”

“In addition,” it says, “future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”

Older operating systems also present a security problem for Steam, as it indicates that since Microsoft has stopped its technical support for Windows 7 in 2020 and Windows 8.1 in January 2023, PCs running the operating systems “are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched.”

“That malware can cause your PC, Steam and games to perform poorly or crash. That malware can also be used to steal the credentials for your Steam account or other services.”

With that said Valve is giving players the rest of the year to upgrade to a more recent operating system, either Windows 10 or Windows 11.

According to The Verge, there were 100 million PCs running Windows 7 in 2021, with a market share of around 20 percent. According to data from Statista, it is the third most popular Windows OS after Windows 10 and Windows 11, respectively.

While this number has surely declined, it does still represent a vast swathe of users who will need to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11.

Windows 8 in comparison was less popular and has managed around 2 percent of the total Windows market share as of January 2023.

The migration to newer versions of Windows present two problems for users. The first is that Microsoft stopped selling licenses for Windows 10 as of January 31st 2023. This means that users will either have to dip into unscrupulous means to upgrade to Windows 10, or bypass Windows 10 entirely and download Windows 11.

This presents a second problem for these users. Windows 11 has requirements that many PCs with older hardware simply don’t have, such as Trusted Platform Modules. Windows 7 users might have to upgrade their machines first before downloading Microsoft’s latest OS in order to keep Steam and their libraries of games, even if numerous games available on Steam run better on legacy versions of Windows.

It’s a roundabout mess, but not something unexpected. Fearing threat actors, companies seemingly move away from legacy software at a faster rate. The latest popular software to be phased out is Internet Explorer, with Microsoft finally closing its casket last month.