Steam dropping support for Windows 7 and 8/8.1 in 2024

[koifish | 555]

Not sure how many people here play on PC and play newer stuff, but I saw today (and was apparently late to the party here) that steam will be dropping support for windows 7 and 8/8.1 in 2024. You may very well be on Windows 10 or newer at this point, but it seems I am part of a 2.75 million group of users (according to a reddit thread on the subject) who are stubbornly refusing to upgrade to an inferior product . I am trying to confirm if they will stop you from launching installed games because of steam, because if so then I will have a real bone to pick with them. Those of you who have looked into older games will know that Steam has had a bad history of policing companies on making sure their games install and run correctly, and moreover, that games often have strange configs or other, delicate duct-tape-and-bubble-gum solutions needed to keep them running. Forcing users to move to a new OS, when games still run on it and support it but for the launcher refusing to start, is simply a new way for steam to not serve customers but instead frustrate users. For me, it's a good reminder that even if X game you really like is only on steam, that they're still a DRM launcher with no vested interest in supporting you, and so you shouldn't trust them.

I'll see if anybody actually responds to this now or if everyone is in zelda wonderland and won't be back to the real world until Monday.

[Gloves | 11,759]

Microsoft hasn't supported Windows 7 since 2020, and support for 8 ended in January of this year. No developer should be expected to support a product which is no longer supported by the company that puts out that product, I fully support this move by Valve. 

Windows 10/11 are perfectly capable OSes and your stubbornness is just that, pure stubbornness borne out of misinformation, misunderstanding, or a simple unwillingness to accept change. Being on Windows 7 or 8 is a security risk for yourself and a foolish move in general (yeah yeah "I'm super careful on the internet I never download anything!" blah blah blah sure, you have viruses and just don't know it).

If I as a web developer still had to support Internet Explorer just because 69.71 million people still use it as of 2021, I'd stop being a web developer. Fuck that noise.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't like Steam - I'm anti-DRM and they have too much of a stranglehold on PC gaming in general. I use GOG as much as I can. But I can't fault Valve for dropping support for an outdated OS, it's a perfectly acceptable move.

[Tulpa | 3,488]

I think they're just not going to push out updates for older OSes. You might still be able to launch games and all.

Yeah, I don't think anything is wrong with Win10, it seems to be no worse than any other version of Windows. Win7 was decent for its time, but it's woefully outdated in 2023. Might as well be Win95 at this point. I run one old laptop on 7, but it doesn't connect to the Internet (I use it for writing and non-web stuff.) Win10 for all other computers I use. Win8 was okay, but the whole tile thing sucked. Good riddance.

Dropping support for older stuff is inevitable. Get used to it. *shrug*

Edited May 12, 2023 by Tulpa

[Gloves | 11,759]

24 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Win8 was okay, but the whole tile thing sucked. Good riddance.

Me in 2023:

[Tulpa | 3,488]

6 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Me in 2023:

 

That's a lot better than this crap.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,503]

11 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

That's a lot better than this crap.

Shit was unusable

[Tanooki | 4,929]

35 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

That's a lot better than this crap.

F that.  I used a program called classic shell someone made because they hated metro hard core.  It gave you the choice of a Windows XP or Windows 7 task bar/setup and that's what I did until I went to 10 because that was hot garbage.

[wongojack | 210]

Yeah, I like the old OSes, but I can't be mad at Steam here.  The trend to "managed experiences" in general is annoying to older computer users who actually used to think about computer ownership differently, but if you are in that camp, you should probably move away from Windows entirely.

Personally, I used Win 8 sparingly, but have had no real problems with Win 10.  As a PC gamer, the compatibility settings usually get the job done for games in that window where things like screen resolution just doesn't quite translate to 2023.  As a guy who works in an office, Win 11 is perfectly fine for my work PCs.

I wish we could go back in time to when the OS took up less than 400mb like a fresh Win 98 install, but there's no going back.

[MegaMan52 | 2,439]

I kind of liked Windows 7's Windows XP mode. Didn't use it very often, but it was fun to look at once in a while.

[Brickman | 3,977]

4 hours ago, Gloves said:

Microsoft hasn't supported Windows 7 since 2020, and support for 8 ended in January of this year. No developer should be expected to support a product which is no longer supported by the company that puts out that product, I fully support this move by Valve. 

Windows 10/11 are perfectly capable OSes and your stubbornness is just that, pure stubbornness borne out of misinformation, misunderstanding, or a simple unwillingness to accept change. Being on Windows 7 or 8 is a security risk for yourself and a foolish move in general (yeah yeah "I'm super careful on the internet I never download anything!" blah blah blah sure, you have viruses and just don't know it).

If I as a web developer still had to support Internet Explorer just because 69.71 million people still use it as of 2021, I'd stop being a web developer. Fuck that noise.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't like Steam - I'm anti-DRM and they have too much of a stranglehold on PC gaming in general. I use GOG as much as I can. But I can't fault Valve for dropping support for an outdated OS, it's a perfectly acceptable move.

100% this. I remember around a year ago there was a person here still using windows 7 and connecting to the Internet and using it as a daily machine. I just had to shake my head and came to realise the general public still don’t understand security and how vulnerable you really are out there.

Also, sorry koifish but you are a madman. Windows 8 was awful. There’s a reason the majority stayed on 7 until 10 released 

[Tanooki | 4,929]

Well if anyone cares at this rate, classic shell was sunset out of lack of interest in 2017, but the author made it public and then linked up a continuation of the program others carried forward to date.

https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

Maybe you odn't like WIn10/11 looking like a mobile phone operating system?  This might be for you.  I've not checked it yet but I wouldn't be surprised if XP/7 style mode still was forward facing on this.

[koifish | 555]

@Gloves

I'm frustrated, but it's not that I blame them for leaving when they can't support it, it's that I'll be irritated when I won't be able to launch games that are already installed and which already work, just because their launcher support is being sunsetted. I assume you support them in moving on rather than trying to fix someone else's sinking ship, since "Fully supporting" something like "you bought these, they're locally installed, and they work fine, but now they don't, entirely because we're taking your access away" just makes you sound like a spiteful jerk.

I use 10 at work and I have a 10 tablet for casual use. I assure you that I have more than enough of 10, and I'd like to continue to keep it off of the computer that I enjoy using. I have seen what they are offering nowadays, on a regular basis even, and I do not care for it. If they give me a reason to leave 7 then I will, but so far that has not happened and I don't expect it to either. Still, I appreciate the assertion of computer incompetence, o' mighty one Sad that my jerk label may be more accurate than I had wished. Or maybe you just deal with too many people at your work insisting that you carve out a corner for supporting their old systems.

@wongojack
Indeed, at this rate my next machine will probably run Ubuntu or something...where I'll set up my win7 machine as a VM. XD

@Brickman

Perhaps I was unclear. You won't ever see me support windows 8; that OS was a total dumpster fire. Just included it since it's also being dropped.

@Tanooki

That's a nice software, didn't know it was discontinued. Weird because I could swear I installed it on my tablet PC a year or so ago and don't remember seeing it being out of support.

[Gloves | 11,759]

30 minutes ago, koifish said:

I'm frustrated, but it's not that I blame them for leaving when they can't support it, it's that I'll be irritated when I won't be able to launch games that are already installed and which already work, just because their launcher support is being sunsetted. I assume you support them in moving on rather than trying to fix someone else's sinking ship, since "Fully supporting" something like "you bought these, they're locally installed, and they work fine, but now they don't, entirely because we're taking your access away" just makes you sound like a spiteful jerk.

I support developers not having to support dead stuff, and that includes Valve.

I do not, however, support Valve's DRM. I'm staunchly anti-DRM and Valve is the king of it, and this is exactly the reason why - your choosing to continue to use outdated software shouldn't lose you access to the games you've purchased.

[Gloves | 11,759]

41 minutes ago, koifish said:

I use 10 at work and I have a 10 tablet for casual use. I assure you that I have more than enough of 10, and I'd like to continue to keep it off of the computer that I enjoy using. I have seen what they are offering nowadays, on a regular basis even, and I do not care for it. If they give me a reason to leave 7 then I will, but so far that has not happened and I don't expect it to either. Still, I appreciate the assertion of computer incompetence

To be clear, you would realistically fall into the more tongue and cheek final option - unwillingness to accept change. Which I mean, we're all on here chatting about NES games all day. You're in good company! 

Didn't mean to imply you're an idiot or anything, mostly poking fun there.

[Tulpa | 3,488]

Well, it does look like you won't be able to launch games after Jan 1st, 2024.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-800A

Quote

As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. After that date, the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.

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, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.

Although support won't end until 2024, we strongly encourage all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to update sooner rather than later. Microsoft ended security updates and technical support for Windows 7 in January 2020 and for Windows 8.1 in January 2023. Computers running these operating systems, when connected to the internet, 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.

Better see if GOG has the games you want.