[German]The time has come: The Steam platform has discontinued support for Windows 7, Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1 as of January 1, 2024. This means that Steam client installations on these operating systems will no longer receive )(security) updates with immediate effect. Steam Support will also no longer provide technical support to users of these operating system platforms for issues related to the old operating systems.
Games and software should still run on the Steam clients under Windows 7, Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1. However, Steam no longer guarantees continued functionality on the unsupported operating system versions. The provider recommends that users update to a newer version of Windows in order to ensure the continued operation of Steam and all games or other products purchased via Steam.
According to this Steam announcement, this change is necessary because core Steam functions are based on an embedded version of Google Chrome. However, this browser no longer works on older versions of Windows. I wrote about this in the blog post Windows 7/8.1: Google ends support in February 2023, Edge also affected. Furthermore, future versions of Steam will require Windows features and security updates that are only available in Windows 10 and higher, the manufacturer writes.
The operators currently assume that the Steam client and the games on the older operating systems will continue to work without updates for some time after January 1, 2024. However, there is no guarantee that functionality will be maintained after this date. This should herald the end of Windows 7.1 and Windows 8.x on this platform.
The Steam makers strongly advise all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to update to a current version of Windows sooner rather than later. Microsoft has discontinued security updates and technical support for Windows 7 in January 2020 and for Windows 8.1 in January 2023 (the ESU program for Windows 7 SP1 was only open to companies). Computers with these out-of-support operating systems are vulnerable to new malware and other security vulnerabilities when connected to the internet, Steam writes here.
