There is some confusion amongst the Steam users.

- The red bar says "Steam no longer supports running on Windows 8.1 and will not receive updates." (Yes, in english even though my language setting is dutch.)

- Clicking the red bar opens up your default browser and then takes you your system language's version of the old FAQ page, the one that says:

Steam will be unable to guarantee continued functionality of Steam on the unsupported operating system versions.

on the english variant at least. On the dutch variant, it says:

Na die datum werkt de Steam-client niet meer op die versies van Windows.

which is what the English version used to say back in july 2023, which translates to "After this date, the Steam Client will no longer work on these versions of Windows."

- The patch notes say:

This version of the Steam client will no longer run on Windows 7 or Windows 8.

What I see happening is that the use of Indirect Language and multiple ways of intepretation in English is causing some people to become aggressively upset when I tell them that, you cannot install Steam on Windows 7 once this update is pushed to release; which I assume is true.

For example, someone reacted to it with this:

Just because they officially end support doesn't mean you can't install steam on these platforms.

Followed by basically a couple of claims that say I was just scaring them and eventually

steam no longer guarantees that it will run smoothly on older versions. That's all.

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I am pretty sure that after this update gets pushed to release, you can only download one executable from the Steam website that would contain the Steam Installation Package.

I am pretty sure that this package has a build of Steam running on Chrome Version 126.

And as such, I am pretty sure that the application will simply give an error message once you try to run it when trying to install Steam.

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What I think the confusion stems from is that, the red bar link still points to the old FAQ page (that hasn't been updated). I also think it stems from this choice of words: "supports running", which isn't direct enough to make people understand on what will happen soon.

What I think will happen:
- I think an update will simply be denied on an older version of Windows, as it cannot run the update. Steam will continue to work, because it loads up a backup, but it won't update on older Windows systems.
- I also think the Steam Setup you can download from the Steam Store will contain a build of Chromium in itself, or otherwise tries to download this from the Steam CDN. The chromium package will not run on Windows 7 8 and 8.1, so instead people who try to install it will see an error message, after which the Steam Client aborts the install and throws away the files it just grabbed.

I was wondering if the Steam Client Beta team could clarify these things, preferably in the Steam FAQ page associated with the Red Bar announcement.

But replying here is fine as well.