On January 1, Valve ended support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, which means that users on those older versions of Microsoft's OS will eventually not be able to use the gaming platform. "We expect the Steam client and games on these older operating systems to continue running for some time without updates after January 1st, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date," Valve wrote in a post on the Steam support site.
It's a bit wild that Steam still supported Windows 7 until the start of 2024. It was a remarkably popular version of the OS even after the launch of Windows 8, but it also debuted in 2009, which is very, very long in software years. To put that in perspective, when Steam debuted in 2003, the same backwards compatibility would've required it to support, uh, Windows 2.1. Windows is obviously a bit more mature these days, but still—one heck of a run, Windows 7.
