Steam No Longer Works on Older Windows Versions
As far as the gaming industry is concerned, Steam has remained one of the best platforms for gamers thanks to a wide selection of software, in addition to wallet-friendly prices all-year-round. While the Steam app for Windows is one of the most convenient ways to access your library of games (as well as the store), it looks like the app no longer supports older versions of Windows.
As such, users running on older Windows versions such as Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 will probably want to avoid updating the Steam app on their computers; of course, another method would be to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11, which come with specific security features unavailable on older versions of the platform. According to an official announcement:
As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. After that date, existing Steam Client installations on these operating systems will no longer receive updates of any kind including security updates. Steam Support will be unable to offer users technical support for issues related to the old operating systems, and Steam will be unable to guarantee continued functionality of Steam on the unsupported operating system versions.
The move to drop support for older versions of Windows stems largely from security concerns, as a lack of security updates means that users on older platforms are more susceptible to malware and other unwanted exploits.
Source: Steam