Valve is ending Steam support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1:
Are you among the few people still using Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 and playing games via Steam? If so, you might want to upgrade to a newer version of Microsoft's OS before January 1, 2024, as that's the date Valve is terminating Steam support for those older operating systems.
Valve made the surprise announcement in a Steam support post. It writes that 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. Or they could always switch to Linux.
Valve's reasoning for dropping Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 is due to Steam relying on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows. The company adds that future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.
It was just last month when Chrome 110 was released, the first version of the world's most popular browser not to support Windows 7. Edge no longer supports these operating systems, either, and Microsoft's extended support for Windows 7 and 8 ended in January.
A quick look at the latest Steam survey shows only a small number of people will be disappointed by Valve's decision – assuming they weren't planning on upgrading in the next nine months. The survey results show that 1.43% of participants still use Windows 7 64-bit, while 0.34% use Windows 8.1 64-bit and 0.09% use Windows 7.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday March 29 2023, @05:20PM (9 children)
My kids use a ten year old computer with a more recent video card, for gaming, largely on Steam. It's Win 7. I don't know if it can handle 10.
My profession dictates that I run Windows, since there is no professional grade CADCAM that runs on Linux, so learning Linux has always been a very low priority for me.
I tried to learn Linux once, and my BIL set me up with a laptop with Linux on it (15 years ago?). The first time I tried to install a game, it broke the OS, and the machine never booted again.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2023, @06:44PM
I'm pretty sure it can handle win10. It didn't seem to be any heavier on my old work laptop, when it was updated, though i disabled all the animations and Aero-crap on both of them.
But that's just one idiot's opinion.
(Score: 1) by Setsuna on Wednesday March 29 2023, @07:51PM
The Linux landscape has changed slightly since. Windows games pretty well under Proton -- you don't even need to do anything. Try something like Ubuntu or Fedora.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Wednesday March 29 2023, @08:02PM
My sympathies. I hate it when my technology gets stranded. Which has happened to me over and over and over.
As I ponder your situation, though, I realize how remarkably not stranded you actually are. You have three options other than starting over with something other than steam, all of which are going to take some resources:
1. If you've got time but not money, you could learn a little linux and put it on your existing box, then run steam from there.
2. If you've got money but not time, you could buy a new windows box, then run steam from there.
3. If you've got a little money and a little time, you could buy a windows upgrade for your existing box, then run steam from there.
Any way you look at it, you are protected by your ability to take your steam account with you to another box and even another OS.
Frankly, if you've got a ten year old computer that is still working, I imagine you've had to crack the case open a couple of times already. As hassles go, this isn't really any bigger than replacing a dead power supply.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday March 29 2023, @11:46PM (1 child)
No problem, I hear Steam runs on Linux, and if it runs Windows 7 it's almost guaranteed to run Linux.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 4, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday March 30 2023, @01:38AM
I've had Steam running on Devuan Chimera with Trinity Desktop the last few years, a bit of a fringe case actually. The Steam client has worked great and, with only a few exceptions, all the "Windwos only" games I still play have all worked flawlessly with Steams' Proton, ocasionally even better than the game did on Windows originally on the same hardware. Though I do use a customized version of Proton for Final Fantasy XIV now everything else runs on Proton Stable/
So far the games that haven't worked with Proton have usually failed as a result of something specific to my system. Mostly relating to my older GPU and some missing graphics Library dependencies or such.
valve has a great refund policy and so far the few games that I couldn't get running I was able to return without issue.
Valve ending Win 7 support will have zero impact on my gaming.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday March 30 2023, @01:50AM (1 child)
If it has been 15 years since you last tried Linux might I suggest you give it another try?
For a more recent test drive my personal recommendation would be Exe [exegnulinux.net] liveDVD.
The Trinity desktop has a very shallow learning curve if you coming from Windows 7due to the GUI having a similar appearance and the Linux distro the disk is built on is fairly recent, stable and has good hardware support for older hardware.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday March 30 2023, @07:16AM
It is kind of daunting that there are so many linuxes, and each recommendation I get is for a different one, but your description does sound appealing.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by higuita on Thursday March 30 2023, @10:12AM
you probably tried to install a game manually (and the wrong way), but now with steam you just press install, just like in windows, and the game runs
Usually windows people breaking linux is because they try to follow the "windows" way of downloading/following any howto, without knowing that in linux, the different distros do matter.
in windows, you only have a few versions and most things apply to any version, but in linux, due to the different distros, you should not download random things from the internet, you must install everything possible from the distro repositories. Mixing files from other distros or versions is a sure way to break linux. It is really not hard, but require a different way to work for a objective. Anyway, today, most modern distros have almoost everything you need included and steam automatically installs games. it is actually much easier to setup a linux than a windows. Nvidia drivers is still the worse thing to mess, while different distros have different automatic way to set it up (search your distro name and nvidia for howto)... but intel and amd is just plug and play, no drivers install is needed and it works very well
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Thursday March 30 2023, @03:28PM
If your kids play Fortnite, be aware that won't work under Linux. Most games with aggressive anticheat won't.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday March 30 2023, @05:49AM (7 children)
While almost 2% of the user base might not seem that many it's still a lot of people in a practical sense. It is hard to pinpoint an exact user number but around 100 million active users or so per month seems to be the number tossed around, which also makes the math easier -- so about 2 million users are going to be disconnected when the new years hit unless they install a new OS (or old but still newer then what they had) and possibly also buy a new computer. These people paid for a bunch of games that they can't play anymore even tho the games will technically run on their machines, it's just the steam client acting as a gatekeeper and preventing them from it. So once again piracy becomes the superior product compared to gatekeeping DRM. Time to find some cracks old games that you have on steam that won't run unless you bypass Steam by other means. Perhaps some of the games can still run in offline mode. But this is what you get for buying digital products, they are not yours -- you just have the privilege of playing with them as long as Steam finds it acceptable.
(Score: 2) by higuita on Thursday March 30 2023, @10:16AM (3 children)
this is also a push for more people to migrate to linux! many of the old machines will run better in linux than in windows and having higher linux market makes everything easier to valve. i can only give thumbs up to this! :D
Finally, even if you don't have updates for steam, it will mostly keep working with the current version installed. ... reinstalling windows and steam may be a problem in the future, but for short term, nothing changes
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday March 30 2023, @10:21AM (2 children)
This is what I'm thinking, and will test. If I can put and launch the games in off-line mode and then also block Steam from accessing the internet via the firewall etc it will never update to a newer version of steam so it will be kept the old way. Firaxis will never update civ5 again (even tho they did tho that weird launcher patch a few years ago). That way I can keep playing my old games on my old machine without ever having to wonder or think about it again. After all I only really play old games by now, one game to be specific (civ5).
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday March 30 2023, @11:01AM (1 child)
A slight digression here, but do you only play old games because you already have them, they are more rewarding to play, or because modern games come with so many restrictions on what you can do?
Actually, if you can write a paragraph or two on this topic I can probably make a reasonable story out of it - but my question is the main reason for me commenting.
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Thursday March 30 2023, @01:20PM
I have not really given the issue much thought, or looking at this post I guess I have given it a bit more thought then what I had imagined I had.
Part of it is that I have less time to play games, so I prefer to devote the time I have to things I know that I'll enjoy or get something out of. A lot of new games in that regard are not very interesting and they spend to much time and effort of just looking good but not actually being good or very interesting, it's style over substance or mechanics in some regard. I don't want to play some interactive movie experience (I played Dragons Lair, it doesn't get better or more interesting then that in that regard) or whatever it is they try to sell these days. Also I don't like fast paced games so all the shooters etc are out. The "new" Wolfenstein games etc were interesting but in some regard it's to fast and clicky for me. I played WOW from the EU release up until a few expansions ago. That took care of almost all the gaming needs I had. But the game got weird and stale (the community in-game also become a cesspool) and then most of the people I knew stopped playing so eventually I enjoyed the game less and less until a time when I just didn't enjoy it at all anymore and stopped).
I don't think price and specs or system req. are much of an issue. I don't really care about the DRM aspect of it either, I can work around that if I have to or need to. It's that the games are just not very interesting. They seem to make endless copies of the same games or concepts and if it's the same then I might as well play the game with the concept that I already have instead of getting a new copy to do the same things. New sound and graphics doesn't, or rarely, make it a more interesting game.
In some regard it might also be a Steam vs GOG question. If there is a choice these days I get it on GOG instead of Steam. If there is only Steam then I would get it on there, but I guess the incentive now is lower if they are locking it down even more. Today it's upgrade to Win10/11 and eventually that won't do either. Keeping an up-to-date Windows system isn't really a priority for me. With GOG i just got a bunch of files and I can play it however I like, where I like, on whatever machine I like as long as I meet the game specs. For Steam now I only really play one or two games, Civ5 (the only reason I play it is the VoxPop mod) and Slay the Spire (even tho I have not apparently played it for a few years now, apparently there is a GOG version now but it wasn't when I got the game). For all the other games I tried, bought or played for the last few years I have gone with the GOG version (Rimworld, Terraforming Mars, Mini-Metro, Dorfromantik etc). In some regard it might also identify the type of games I like -- boardgame like games, slow and strategic games. Not a lot of action going on in any of them. In some regard I guess it also fills the boardgame need when I can't or find time to play actual boardgames with my friends (work, family, the plague etc interfering with our regular boardgame nights).
The last game I bought was last year -- Against the Storm. It's sort of like the old Warcraft games but without the "war". So they are builder games of sort. Very enjoyable even tho a bit repetitive after a few games. There is not really anything "new" in the game but it's done in a good and interesting way. It's relaxing in some way and I have enjoyed it so far even tho it's still in early access (another thing I kind of hate but sometimes there are exceptions; paying to play a development product like some unpaid beta tester).
https://www.gog.com/en/game/against_the_storm [gog.com]
Then I have all my old machines around, they are filled with games. Sure they are between 30-40 years old now. But then the games are still fun in that regard. Which in some regard proves, to me, that they don't become more fun cause the audio is better or the graphics are in 4k or whatnot. The game is the game, it's the mechanics that make them fun. I can't rule out nostalgia of some misspent youth either (or possibly spent in a great way). For kids today they might look and feel incomprehensible but for me they are memories and I enjoy(ed) them.
So I guess in some regard I could conclude that I don't really need new games. I have enough old games. They fill the same need. I guess it's just like people re-watching old movies or tv-shows, re-reading old books or listening to the same music. New isn't necessarily better. Some things are just that good and age doesn't matter. Still every now and then something new and interesting comes around. But I find it to be rare.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Thursday March 30 2023, @04:10PM (2 children)
Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in 2015, and ended security updates in 2023. Anyone who blames Valve for their Windows 7 box becoming unusable is blaming the wrong company.
I love Steam. I have loads of old CDs and DVDs with favorite games from the 90s. They are pretty much all unplayable now. But I can still play anything I ever bought on Steam on my new computer, and my children can play pretty much anything I ever bought on Steam on my old computers. Steam gives you access to titles you bought a decade ago. What it does not do is keep your decade old computer working.
As far as Steam shedding users... Well, let's just say that customers who can't afford a new computer every 15 years don't spend a lot on games.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday March 30 2023, @05:29PM (1 child)
That is somewhat besides the point isn't it? They bought the games once upon a time and now they can't run it anymore cause they decided to upgrade the gatekeeper/DRM software solution. So they might not be buying any of their newer games available on the service but they still bought games once upon a time so the question in some regard is how long is Valve/Steam required to honor their purchase. Also a viable question for all other sellers of digital products. How much of what you bought do you actually own or use or are you really just renting access to it for as long as they want to make it so. They could in essence add whatever hardware requirements they would like, say that the Steam launcher won't launch anymore unless you have 128gb of RAM or unless you have one of the latest graphics cards installed or whatever other arbitrary reason they might like.
Also their machines are not useless or unusable cause they are old. They are still able to run the games in question fine. What they can't now run for reasons is the Valve/Steam gatekeeper/DRM. That thing is now having higher system requirements then the actual game they want to play. A fair amount of old games doesn't even like it when you try to play them on a newer or more modern OS.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Thursday March 30 2023, @08:02PM
I think it is quite relevant. The fundamental issue is how games are marketed. Does the consumer get a license and one copy of the installation media, or do they get a license and access to an installation service that is available indefinitely? If the consumer just gets a box with a disk, that game is going to rot and eventually become unusable as it stays the same and the world moves on. But that is the consumer's problem, not the seller's. If the consumer buys a service which is available indefinitely, it will rot eventually too, but maybe slower and maybe faster. In order for the Steam service to continue to exist, it needs to continue to be profitable. For that to happen, Valve needs to invest enough resources in keeping old things working that customers won't say "I'm not going to buy a new Steam game, It'll just stop working." But they also have to draw the line somewhere. In 50 years, will they still be expected to support the same game on 60 year old hardware? I think Steam has gotten the balance right. I've been using Steam for more than a decade. None of my games has rotted out from under me. In fact games that used to ran on Windows when I bought them now run on Linux. The fact that Steam no longer supports an OS from 2009 doesn't bother me, because Windows 7 DID rot out from under me. I replaced it long ago. But if I had bought any Steam games for Windows 7 in 2009, I could still play them today, on Linux. Steam has a strong value proposition for me as a consumer even though they don't support every game on every platform forever. Steam games still last longer than games I used to buy the old fashioned way.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday March 30 2023, @03:02PM
Its sad from a retrocomputing standpoint, it would be cool to spin up an ancient windows and play ancient steam games (as opposed to games from that era ported to run on win11)
Google claims the oldest game currently available on Steam is Carmageddon Max Pack from June 30 1997 so its sad they support the ancient games, but not the ancient OS to run it.
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Thursday March 30 2023, @03:33PM
Why is anyone surprised at this? Steam stopped supporting XP and Vista when Chrome stopped supporting those OSes, so of course when Chrome drops 7 and 8 Steam will. Steam's interface is built on Chrome.
I used to prefer GOG to Steam, until I switched to Linux for my gaming. GOG's support for Linux has slowly gotten worse over time, and things are just a hell of a lot easier with Steam.