Steam Drops Official Support For Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

With effect from January 1, 2024, Valve, the company behind the well-known PC gaming platform Steam, will no longer be providing support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.

Official Support For Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 Is Dropped By Steam

The Steam Client for Windows 7/8/8.1 has been terminated as of January 1, 2024. This implies that no installation, system requirements, technical support, or updates of any kind—including security patches—will be provided for it.

The main justification for stopping support is that several of the essential functions of Steam rely on an embedded Google Chrome version that is incompatible with earlier iterations of Windows.

Additionally, PCs without security updates are vulnerable to new malware and other flaws that won't be addressed, as Microsoft will stop providing security updates for Windows 7 in January 2020 and Windows 8.1 in January 2023. Google also stopped supporting Google Chrome on Windows 7 at that point.

Because of the weaknesses in your outdated system, hackers can easily take advantage of it to steal the login information for Steam or other services, or they can exploit it to make your PC, Steam, and games malfunction or crash.

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To guarantee the continuous functioning of Steam and any games or other products bought through Steam, Valve recommends users to update to a more recent version of Windows.

Even without client upgrades beyond January 1, 2024, the company anticipates that the Steam client and games will continue to function on older operating systems for a considerable amount of time. It does not, however, provide a guarantee for ongoing functionality beyond this date. Stated differently, it is recommended that you update your device to the most recent version of Windows, as updates will not be provided for previous versions.

Additionally, Valve states that Windows features and security updates that are exclusive to Windows 10 and higher will be needed for future versions of Steam.

For more information on the end of support for Steam on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, check out their official Steam Support website.