Steam will stop working on Windows 7 and 8 next year

Despite releasing greater than 13 years in the past, Windows 7 remains to be remembered extra fondly than the working techniques that got here each earlier than and after it — that’s most likely why one in twenty Windows machines remains to be working it. But should you’re a PC gamer, it’d lastly be time to let go. According to a brand new help web page, PC recreation market juggernaut Steam will stop supporting the working system on January 1st, 2024. Oh, and the identical goes for Windows 8, not that anyone cares.

According to the help web page, the offender is definitely Chrome. Steam makes use of an embedded model of Google’s Chrome browser to serve up retailer pages and different content material, and that particular characteristic of the browser is now not actively up to date. The web page says that upcoming Steam releases will rely on Windows safety updates which can be solely accessible in Windows 10 and 11. You can hardly blame Valve or Google: Microsoft formally ended help for Windows 7 greater than two years in the past, and the final model of Windows 8 adopted a number of months in the past.

Once the deadline hits, you’ll need to improve Windows to proceed taking part in your video games. Here’s the data verbatim from Valve:

“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.”

Fortunately the cloud-based nature of Steam, and its built-in instruments for migrating downloaded video games, ought to make it comparatively painless to maneuver over to a brand new working system or a wholly new Windows PC.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer