Microsoft and Google no longer support Valve’s launcher in terms of security
Valve has announced that it will discontinue official support for the Steam launcher on older Windows operating systems 7, 8, and 8.1 on January 1, 2024, signaling the end of an era for these outmoded platforms. As a result, no security updates or support will be provided for these operating systems.
For the time being, Steam may continue to support these older operating systems. Valve announced the retirement because its launcher relies on security patches from various software vendors. Steam, in particular, is dependent on a version of Google Chrome that is not supported by Windows 7. As is customary with such announcements, Valve advises users to upgrade to Windows 10 or later.
In January 2020, Microsoft stopped deploying updates and providing technical support for Windows 7. Despite the fact that Windows 8 and 8.1 were not as popular, Microsoft stopped providing security updates and technical support for those platforms in January 2023.
These security patches are critical because malicious programs can affect multiple apps and launchers, necessitating the addition of safeguards by businesses. Security researchers also discover flaws in both hardware and software, which are then patched via Windows updates.
Many Steam users will be unaffected by the end of support for these operating systems. According to the December Steam hardware survey, these operating systems account for between 0% and 0.01% of all Steam users worldwide. However, Windows Server 2019 is still supported because Microsoft will continue to release security updates until January 9, 2024, affecting approximately 0.06% of Steam users.
For the time being, Epic Games supports Windows 7, but given the lack of security updates for the operating system, it won’t be long before other launchers follow suit. Windows 10 support will end on October 14, 2025, with Microsoft later offering a paid support subscription.
Windows accounts for over 96.40% of Steam users, while MacOS and Linux have a negligible share. It will be interesting to see if newer users switch to Windows 10, Windows 11, or any of the Linux distributions. Arch Linux Ubuntu 64-bit is the operating system of 0.15% to 0.14% of Steam’s users.