this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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96
Steam Confirms End of Support for 32-bit Windows OS in 2026 (www.techpowerup.com)
submitted 6 days ago by Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

No one uses 32 bit Windows (especially for gaming), but at least we might at last get a 64 bit verison of the Steam client on Windows.

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[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 27 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Future versions of Steam will run on 64-bit versions of Windows only.

Finally sounds like some plans to make the steam client 64bit

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They'll somehow make the client 32 bit but still need a 64 bit computer.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It'll be two separate 32-bit clients that need to be ran together so it adds up to 64.

[–] Lippy@fedia.io 3 points 6 days ago

Ah yes, the Atari Jaguar approach.

[–] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 9 points 6 days ago

I'm wondering how this will affect Linux support. Steam client on Linux depends on very old 32-bit libs from Ubuntu 12.04 (!) and is a major reason for distros keeping their 32bit support

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Never really considered that games don’t stop running on legacy hardware, but the Steam client does. GOG‘s way of downloadable installers is preferably.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/steam-drops-windows-7-and-8-support-with-the-latest-client-users-told-to-update-to-a-more-recent-version-of-windows-to-continue-gaming

When 7 and 8 support was fully dropped (where the newest Steam client requires 10 or above to run at all), Steam clients on older OSes were not updated automatically. It's only if you manually try to update the launcher, it would "brick" your installations.

I agree that GOG's method will stand the test of time better (as we wouldn't have to archive specific versions of Steam), but for those with existing setups you aren't SOL right away when support ends.

[–] Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's still kinda shitty. There's better way to archive the old version of steam but leave it readily available.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

There is no way to have a legacy Steam client that's not maintained but still must authenticate users, transactions, and downloads.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 6 days ago

At least you can easily run 32 bit applications on 64 bit operating systems and hardware without performance penalty