Valve to end Steam support on Windows 7, 8, 8.1 next year

Valve said it would end its Steam support on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 next year. The decision follows the move of other third-party companies, which are gradually moving away from the old Windows versions after Microsoft ended support for them.

According to Valve, it will specifically drop this support on January 1, 2024. The company explained that Steam depends on Chrome, which recently stopped support for the said systems.

“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,” Valve explained. “In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”

Additionally, the company encouraged its customers to upgrade their systems to newer supported versions of Windows, saying staying in the old ones could result in possible malware risks and exploitations.

“Although support won’t end until 2024, we strongly encourage all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to update sooner rather than later,” it added. “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.”

On the other hand, while more and more companies follow the decision of Microsoft to leave behind the said old Windows versions, Mozilla announced that it would continue supporting its Firefox browser running on Windows 7 and 8 until the third quarter of 2024. The decision came after last year’s report about the company considering extending this support. And while this is good news, it doesn’t mean Firefox will forever be protected, though Mozilla said it is uncertain when it will completely remove support for Windows 7 and 8.