Steam is dropping support for Windows 7 and 8 PCs soon

Steam recently announced that it will soon drop support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 devices, meaning Windows 10 and above will be required.

Specifically, the announcement was made via a post on the Steam Support page. There, details about why older versions of Windows will be dropped.

According to the post, Steam will officially stop supporting Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 starting January 1, 2024, meaning the Steam Client will no longer work by the new year. This at least gives users who are still running an older version of Windows enough time to upgrade.

So, why is support being dropped? Well, that’s because the Steam Client relies on an embedded version of Google Chrome for its latest features, but this is no longer functional on old Windows versions. Future versions of Steam will also require feature and security updates that will only be available on 10 and above.

This might become an issue for games on Steam that are designed to run on older Windows versions. But for the most part, users likely won’t be affected.

It often takes a while before new versions of Windows get a wider adoption, though Windows 10 has been out for early eight years now. Coupled with the fact that most PC users are likely on Windows 10 already, this update shouldn’t be much of an issue for the vast majority of users.