Windows 10 support ended on October 14, which means Microsoft has stopped releasing updates for it. End of support from Microsoft usually means that various applications and services will soon no longer support the operating system. So when will Steam stop working on Windows 10?
As long as Chromium supports Windows 10, Steam should too
Steam Windows 7 support ended January 1, 2024. But Valve didn't decide to stop supporting Windows 7 and 8 on a whim; they had a good reason for this.
The Steam desktop client is based on Built-in Chromium platform (CEF), fund for Chromium and web browsers based on it. Chromium, an open source web browser project managed by Google, is the basis of many popular browsers, including BraveMicrosoft Edge, VivaldiOpera and Opera GX, also known as “game browser“. If you want, you can even use Chromium as a standalone browser.
In any case, when Chromium no longer supported for Windows 7 and Windows 8 in early February 2023, Valve had no choice but to stop supporting these operating systems as well. While the company was able to keep some components of the Steam desktop client up to date for Windows 7 and 8, they couldn't do anything to update its core, the Chromium Embedded Framework.
This would ultimately leave Steam vulnerable to malware and other attacks, and Valve would be powerless to stop them. So, instead of making the Steam desktop client vulnerable to all sorts of exploits with no way to stop them, the company decided to stop supporting Windows 7 and 8.
Another reason Valve ended support for Windows 7 and 8 was that future versions of Steam would require features and security updates only available on Windows 10 and 11, but the main reason was the end of Chromium support for those platforms.
Since Steam depends on Chromium updates to function properly, as long as Google updates Chromium on Windows 10, gamers running Windows 10 will be able to use Steam on their devices. gaming pcs.
I believe Windows 10 will remain relatively popular for some time.
Google likely dropped support for Windows 7 as the operating system became less popular. Despite the end of support for Microsoft Windows 7 in January 2020, Windows 7 occupied more than 18% of the Windows market share at the end of 2020. That's a lot of computers that could run Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers at the time.
But just two months before Google announced it would end support for Chromium in Windows 7, the OS's market share fell below 10% for the first time, holding just 9.62% of the Windows market in October 2022.
Further evidence that the popularity of Windows 7 was the reason for expanded support for Chromium was the fact that Chromium abandoned Windows 8.1 in January 2023, the same time Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 8.1. This was likely because Windows 8.1 only had about 2.3% of the overall Windows market at the time, which was too small for Google to justify extended support for it like it did with Windows 7.
If you ask me, Windows 10 will remain quite popular for some time to come. As of this writing, Windows 10 holds over 33% of the Windows market share. Although this number will now begin to decline faster, official support has endedI believe Windows 10's market share won't drop to around 10% – and thus signal to Google that it's time to stop supporting Chromium – for the foreseeable future.
Ironically, the main reason I believe this is Windows 11. Just like Windows 7 users for a long time refused to upgrade to Windows 10 because they thought it was inferior to Windows 7, the same thing is happening now with Windows 11. Many people view Windows 11 as a worse OS, especially now that Microsoft I'm trying to put it in (for the most part) unnecessary AI functions V every computer running Windows 11.
Add the fact that a ton of computers are running Windows 10 not compatible with Windows 11-Although you can install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware with a few tweaks, you've got the perfect storm that will keep Windows 10 popular for years to come.
I don't think Steam will stop supporting Windows 10 until 2030.
I predict that Steam will continue to support Windows 10 until at least 2030. And here's why.
First, ten years after its release, Windows 7 occupied about 28% of the Windows market, and Windows 10 managed to hold almost 43% a decade after its release.
Additionally, we have the problem of the sluggish adoption rate of Windows 11 and its strict hardware requirementswhich prevents many from switching to Windows 11. Add Microsoft's obsession with artificial intelligence and controversial Windows 11 features such as Revokewhich will further hamper the already slow adoption of Windows 11, and I don't think Windows 10's market share will fall below the magical 10% for at least the next half-decade.
After all, Windows 7's market share fell below 10% 13 years after its release, so it's likely that Windows 10 will still have at least 10% of the Windows market 15 years after its debut.
It is still a very user-friendly OS that supports all the latest features except some AI features, which is a boon for many people. It also supports all the latest gaming features, including the DirectX 12 suite and things like DirectStorage (limited support, but still there).
In addition, Microsoft offers ESU (Extended Security Updates) for Windows 10, which will last until October 2026. This means that Chromium will only need to support Windows 10 for three years after Microsoft ends Valve's extended support in order to continue supporting Windows 10 until 2030, since Steam did support Windows 7 for about a year after Chromium dropped the OS.
So yes, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that your gaming PC will continue to receive Steam updates at least until the end of this decade.
You'll likely be able to use Steam on Windows 10 even after support ends.
Lack of official support does not mean that Steam will stop working completely once Valve shuts down Windows 10. For example, Steam worked fine on Windows 7 in early October 2024, more than 10 months after Valve ended support. A Steam update that prevented Windows 7 users from accessing Steam's online features. shipped late November 2024.
However, you can install and run Steam on Windows 7 even today. with a couple of modificationseven run new games as long as they don't require DirectX 12.
In other words, once Google and then Valve decide it's time to shut down Chromium and Steam on Windows 10, you'll likely be able to continue using Steam and playing (some) new games on your Windows 10 PC for a while. No one knows for how long, but it's likely that it will be at least a year after official support ends.
My latest prediction is that Steam will continue to release updates for Windows 10 for about five more years, give or take a year. The good news is that once official support ends, you can probably get Steam to work on Windows 10 with some tweaks for at least a few more years.
So, to finally answer the question, there's a good chance that Steam won't stop working on Windows 10 until around 2032 or 2033. All I need now is a time machine to jump forward to 2033 for a minute and see how right (or wrong) I was.
