Steam will stop supporting earlier versions of the Windows operating system. After January 1, 2024, owners of versions 7 and 8.1 will no longer be able to run platform applications. This is stated in the official information on Steam:
“As of January 1, 2024, Steam will no longer officially support operating systems Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. After this date, the Steam client will no longer work on these versions of Windows.”
The legitimacy of such a decision can be questioned, but the share of these systems among Steam users is low: 1.52% for Windows 7 and 0.34% for Windows 8.1, respectively (according to the survey of FEBRUARY). It should be remembered that both systems are no longer supported by Microsoft. Since January 10 of this year, they do not receive updates. But that’s not the only reason for Valve Software’s decision:
“Steam’s latest features are based on the built-in version of Google Chrome, which no longer works on older versions of Windows. Additionally, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates found only in Windows 10 and above. “
Indeed, the Steam application is a type of browser that simply displays a web page. Older systems will not receive support for certain Chrome features, which the app is based on, so it will not work properly. For the less than 2% of Steam users who still use older systems, the only thing to recommend is upgrading to newer software.