It has been brought to my attention that as of 1/1/24 Steam will no longer run on W7 and W8 machines. I can understand the reasoning but do not like the move. I have a W7 with maxed out specs. I even dropped in a very good Vid card so I could run many games that are slated for W10 only with a good video card. I have a W10 All-In-One computer that has integrated video so it keeps me from running most W10 games that need a good video card. I also have a good number of games that are slated for W7 or earlier OS. Will they run on a W10/11? I am just wondering how many Steam purchased games one will loose playing on a W7/8 because of this move. Guess we will find out 2024. It is time to get a new machine that will come with W11. How many earlier games will run on that. Times a changing. Might be best to purchase from GOG when you can if running a W7/8 computer. Who knows they might just do the same before long

Support on Windows 7 / 8

I noticed the other day that Chrome is dropping support for anything that isn't Windows 10 or higher, so this announcement ties into that of Steam's.

Thank you for posting about this, Orion.

It is well past time for platforms to stop running on Windows 7. After so many years with no security updates, it is filled with security holes. Windows 8 is close behind it for security issues. I'm actually quite surprised they waited this long as more and more security problems are popping up especially with Windows 7. My advice for anyone still using Windows 7 is to take if off the internet.

We started threads down here in the Glitches forum about games running on Windows 7, 8 and 10. What we found was that ALMOST all games that ran on Windows 7 would also run on Windows 10. The biggest issue was that it would not run any games with certain forms of DRM. For instance, Windows 10 would not run A Vampyre Story because of the DRM, not the game itself. Of course, this was only for games run from a DVD or CD. Luckily GOG and to an extent Steam, have picked up the rights to a lot of these games and offer them with the DRM removed. I would suggest perusing that Windows 10 and Games thread for a feel of how games will run on it.

Keep in mind that you do not HAVE to use the GOG client in order to download games. Steam is worse about that and does require the Steam client for most of their games.

I have a laptop with Windows 11 and I rather like it. I really need to get my desktop upgraded to Windows 11. I have to enable TPM 2.0 in the motherboard BIOS before it can run it though. I only built this desktop about 3 years ago!

Thank you Orion!

One game I know already is a problem for some of us on Windows 10 is Syberia II. I tried both the Steam and GOG versions and the conversations get cut off when playing in Win 10; something about the frame rate (according to their discussion boards) which I am incapable of dealing with. Thankfully, I still had the game installed on my Win 7 from the last time I played it and that is where I am replaying it again.

This also multiplies a problem I have with Domini casual games. I have no video in these games (since 2019) on Win 10 and have downloaded all of them to Win 7. While most of them are from Big Fish, there are some I bought from Steam. I am a creature of habit (or maybe just a stick in the mud) but I like to play the series in order. This will be impossible for me to do before the end of the year so I guess I will have to play the ones from Steam out of order. Of course, I worry that my Win 7 will go out on me too which is why I have been playing a lot of the Domini games lately.

I'll also mention Bad Mojo as GOG does not show this game plays on Win 10 though some reviewers say it does. I have not tested it out myself though I may do so as I've been thinking of replaying it again. I do still have it installed on Win 7 though if I need to play it there.

Thank you, oldbroad! You have so much more experience with all these games than I do. I am also a creature of habit - or stick-in-the-mud! - when it comes to playing a series of games in order, even if they are not related to each other.

And, indeed, even on GOG you have to pay attention to whether a game runs on Windows 10 or not.

Then you have little miracles from GOG like getting to play the old 16-bit Shivers 1 game on my Windows 10!