PC gamers will finally lose support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 thanks to Valve dropping them

Three older Windows OS versions are getting the boot from Valve

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PC gamers, it’s time to bring in the new year by finally retiring that old Windows OS. Valve announced in an official blog post thatSteamwould no longer supportWindows 7, 8, and 8.1 after January 1, 2024.

According to theofficial Steam blog post, after that date current Steam Client installations on those namedoperating systemswill no longer be receiving any updates, including security updates. Steam will also no longer offer technical support or be able to guarantee Steam functionality after that date.

According to the latestSteam hardware survey, only about 0.89% of Steam users still have Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 installed, which is around the same amount as those withNvidiaRTX 4090 graphics cards. Not an insignificant amount considering that there are 31 million online Steam users, but it’s still a rather small population so the dropped support makes sense on that front.

Valve recommended users update their OS as “core features in Steam rely on an embedded version ofGoogle Chrome” and that “future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present inWindows 10and above.” The post also cites general security risks involved in keeping these operating systems installed without proper security updates to address them. This is sound advice considering thatMicrosoftended support for Windows 7 in 2020 andWindows 8.1 in 2023.

Microsoft ending OS support could spell disaster

Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 aren’t the only ones that have gotten the boot from Microsoft, as the tech giant is planning on ending support forWindows 10in 2025.

Not only is this putting a significant amount of users out of an unsupported OS but, as analyst firm Canalys puts it,could cause an environmental disaster. This is due to the current laptops running Windows 10 that don’t fit the hardware requirements forWindows 11, which means that those laptops would most likely not be recycled. That’s an estimated 240 million PCs becoming e-waste.

Users will have the option topay for prolonged support, like with Windows 7 before it, but that only extended the lifespan by three years and each year saw rising costs for paying users.

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It remains to be seen how Microsoft will handle this potential catastrophe, especially since in recent years the corporation has seemed to become more proactive in terms of sustainable and easily repaired hardware, as well as other environmental issues.

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Named by the CTA as a CES 2023 Media Trailblazer, Allisa is a Computing Staff Writer who covers breaking news and rumors in the computing industry, as well as reviews, hands-on previews, featured articles, and the latest deals and trends. In her spare time you can find her chatting it up on her two podcasts, Megaten Marathon and Combo Chain, as well as playing any JRPGs she can get her hands on.

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