I saw this on the Steam tonight. Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions. People should be aware of this, I think quite a few people still run Windows 7 or even Vista.
Yes, that Message was shown since a longer While. But i would simply test it, "will only support Windows 10 and later Versions", must not necessarily mean, that it doesn't work on W7 Machines at all anymore.
It's the first time I've seen it. The game will probably still work but you may not get any new updates or be able to install anything from the workshop.
It's more about the steam client itself no longer getting updates, and its functionality (using Chrome) could be affected especially over time. In an rF2 context, it seems almost a non-issue. Anyone running rF2 on their PC should be able to run Win10 without problems. Overall, the risk of steam itself not working properly or even at all, and games potentially no longer being correctly updated through it, probably should pale into insignificance next to running an OS that is more than 3 years (in the case of Win7) out of support, including security patches. The cost of updating (I think I read it's no longer free if you haven't already done it) can mentally be amortized and is pretty minor. The annoyance of having to adapt to Win10, well, we all did that from 2015 onwards. It's not the end of the world. Is there any performance cost in running Win10 vs Win7? I don't think so, if anything Win10 is better. Any early scares were only scares, as usually happens (and is happening again with Win11 - horror stories, meanwhile others are just using it without issue). It's something to be aware of, but it should also act as a wake-up call. Like rF2 itself, the transition may not go smoothly, but chances are it can be made to work the way you want.
I was very nervous about this a few months ago. I did not want to upgrade my PC to W10. I ended up buying a different PC from a friend that already had W10 installed for $200. Same graphics card, equivalent processor. I have to say, all my games (rF2, AC, AMS2, ect) run better than they did on W7. It took some getting used to, that is a fact, but overall I am happy with W10.
I still have my w7 machine for offline use, I did not want to update that machine to w10. Still works fine offline.