The Steam app for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 officially stopped working on the first day of 2024.
Valve dropped its live support for older versions of the Windows OS as "core features" of the game store is embedded in Google Chrome, an app that is also no longer functioning in Windows 7 and 8.
Steam warned its customers still using its app on the affected Windows OS that it will be "unable to guarantee continued functionality" of the app from here on out.
Security support will also no longer be supported for these older Windows versions.
The end-of-support date was first announced March of last year.
At least 1% of Steam users still use the app on Windows 7 and 8 while over 95% have already migrated to Windows 10 and 11, according to The Verge.
Also Read : Steam Will Stop Supporting 2 Windows OS in 2024
Why are Apps Dropping Support on Windows 7, 8?
Steam is not the only one that has officially discontinued its services for Windows 7 and 8.
In fact, a lot of live service apps cannot function anymore on older versions of the Windows OS over the past year.
This is due to Microsoft fully stopping all security updates and technical support for these operating systems.
Technical support for Windows 7 stopped in 2020 with the Extended Security Updates only lasting until January 2023, the same time live support for Windows 8.1 stopped.
Older operating systems are more prone to cyberattacks and malware infestation due to vulnerabilities not present on modern versions of the system anymore.
Related Article : Microsoft May Soon Charge Windows 10 Users for Security Updates
Steam to Soon Drop Live Support for Older MacOS
Steam is also set to stop functioning on MacOS 10.13 and 10.14 this coming February.
Apple officially dropped its last version of support for the OS in 2019, making it unable for 32-bit applications on the systems. Many Steam games only run on 32-bit.
Users on these versions are "strongly encouraged" to update to more recent versions of the MacOS.
