Computers running these operating systems, when connected to the internet, are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched.

Both the Steam program and Spotify program are coded like crap! Why piggy back on Google? i.e Chromium? Customize your stuff. Use C, C#, C++ and be creative! No? Too much time and money? Too rich to do that?


They (the idiots that insist you must use the latest and greatest) always spew that one liner I quoted above and the people (consumers) lap it up like the layman consumers they are.

"You have to update! You have to update! Make sure you have updates! Oh my God, you don't use updates?! What are you thinking!"

Nothing could be further from the truth if you know your way around a computer and how to use the Internet. I'm a very good perfect example because I never paid homage to the Microsoft patch Tuesday God since Windows 98se and only use a handful of updates needed for software and hardware. Despite that there has been no malware or encountering a black hoodie wearing hacker wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. I actually have two computers sitting here on the desk running Windows 7 that are connected to the Internet. So long as I don't use those like a low IQ chimp I'm fine. In my opinion this is like the anti-virus software market that does nothing but give the layman a warm and fuzzy feeling all the while the anti-virus software steals your telemetry. Speaking of which. There was an anti-virus product that actually installed a cryptominer into your computer! Yeah, totally need that for the protecting of a computer...

My point here is that you can run a computer with an old OS and not have to worry so long as you have an above understanding of computers and cybersecurity. But to those that don't, then by all means patch away. Just know some of those "updates" come packed with bullshit telemetry which I found out one day after installing an update in Windows 7. I saw it because I monitor the network and prior to installing the update I had no connections to an Akamai server while my computer was idle. Now I do. Akamai... stupid name... It's Polynesian for "clever." Clever alright, because the ESP in me smells shenanigans... Oracle is no better if not worse. One day this telemetry business will get even more clever, I kid you not.

The powers that be know people can't continue to use Windows 7. And the powers that be are constantly getting away with dirty BS that encompasses privacy theft via the OS and software for the sake of monetization and stock padding on behalf of the stock holder all on this assumption you MUST use the "latest and greatest." Besides, I already got that felling Steamy pill of crap Steam was using Chromium. All the "cool kids" rely on Google nowadays! Especially Google's web components that many websites are using that run like shit in a niche browser like Pale Moon. We have a couple problems in this the present day world: Right to chose what software and or OS you want to use, and the right to repair is being chiselled away as well. Again, it's about padding that stock and satisfying the greed head stock holders. Nothing wrong with making money, but you're having to rape and beat the consumer to do so. And besides, Capitalism while great in its own right is an inherit double edged sword...

On the software side of things with the OS, I can see having to use a "better" OS as technology moves along. But is it really? Is it really a better OS? It's not. They took baseline code, added fluff BS (it really is) and called it Windows 10/11. I personally get constant search engine hits to my website from users using the search term, "why is Windows 10 a POS?" I know not because I use Google analytics, but because I see the referrer from where the user came from and what page they viewed on my website. In this case a long running topic on Windows 10's BS. Then you have people bitch at you because you chose not to use Windows this version or another. It was like that with Windows 8. "Oh, get Windows 8! It's lighter, has a smaller footprint, It's just skittles and unicorns!" These fan boys are cannon fodder for a product that has a severe lack of QC (Quality Control) and turns the consumer into the Redmond cash cow. One day ALL will be required to install software via the Microsoft Play Store. The play store.... THEY play you. Google et al... For Android I try to use F-Droid.



Anyway, this diatribe is brought to you by the makers of your much needed tier 3 drug. Ask your doctor if Astrocaucus is right for you. Don't take Astrocaucus if you're allergic to Astrocaucus. Side effects may include the overwhelming desire to sniff your carpet and hire the Peevish & Puke law firm...

Gesh, I'm 42 years old and already sound like a crazy ass 70 year old! (no offense to crazy ass 70 year olds) LOL! It's just I've seen so much change - from good to worse. It's like one step forward and two steps back if you ask me. Long live Windows XP. I personally had very little issue with it (very true), and for whatever its issues it could have been patched. But nope! Lets reinvent the freaking wheel with a product that looks like cotton candy but is in fact covered in diarrhea.

Yours truly,

Not a Copper Top.

Steam itself is an exploit that needs to be patched.

I am pretty sure Windows 7 Users and Windows 8.1 Users will get a working version of Steam after 2024 Ban Afterall windows xp and windows vista Users have a working version of Steam after the 2019 Ban and is still working I just hope that day will come when windows 7,8.1 get it done
I have Purchased Garrys mod on the steam market and i play garrys mod everyday when i have free time it makes me tear up that garrys mod will not work in my laptop and uprgarding to windows 10 will make things worse i used to get 30-40 fps when i used to run windows 10 right now i am getting 60-140 fps when i "uprgraded" to windows 7

I've done some things to prevent steam from updating the client to newer versions for now. I don't know how effective that will be in the long term, but steam didn't start "including EOL" aspects in the patches for the client, until after 3/24/2023 and i happened to Backup-clone my drive on that day.

4/26/2023 is when the new patches to punish users for using windows 7 came in. 'warning' us about steam EOL on win7. But also possibly including what i call kill-switch software to use for its planned obsolescence of steam on 1/1/2024.

Here is a Haphazard list of things i have done, to prevent further updates affecting my ghost-image of steam.

UNDERSTAND THIS: this is a 'mess', not tidy, and not advised for anyone but elite superusers to poke around at!!!
WHAT THIS WILL DO:

A) Well so-far, it has disabled and prevented steam from doing -any- sort of updates to the client. Its also pretty much ruined access to the store page and pretty much anything relateing to steam client chromium access..

B) %Path2Steam%\Steam\logs\bootstrap_log.txt seems to be bloating up constantly with failed attempts to download/install the patches its looking for. My only fix for this is to have the file Open (In usage-lock) when steam tries to access it, so that it cant alter it. This file came in handy for seeing where steam was getting downloaded patches from. so i could Block them using c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts (explained below)

C) While all of this is to block prevent and keep Steam in Offline mode, i WAS actually able to continue logging in, as is, for now. I guess ill find out in 2024, if it's a pheasable fix to remain using win7 with steam next year. (But i doubt it)

D) you can chose "Go Online" from the steam menu after steam has started up. But all of this is to assure it -starts- in offline mode and cant initiate any DL's of patches to change anything During Steam Restarts.

E) Games do still update, and i can "Go Online" mode and play things but not -everything- works with this setup. The game "Core Keeper" I was not able to friend-invite or even connect with code, to my Boyfriends pc with this same setup between us. The game "Grounded" would not move past the login screen as it's a MicrosoftGames or MicrosoftPlay game or something or other. But i was able to run "Star Wars Squadrons" an EA game (the steam version) with Reshade.me (helps bypass DirectX12 requirement for windows7 users), and connect to online dogfights and such. so Your Mileage May Vary.

F) I wouldn't advise installing new steam games with the below processes in-place. or even DLC.. i mean maybe you can. i have not tried to yet... i guess it could work?? i just. cant see any store pages in steam to do so with all this.. so ... um, maybe buy through your local web browser? Firefox? Chrome? That'll be for you guys to test and report back on. Im not buying any more through steam at ALL till they make sure windows 7 users can still play and buy and access normally. (So mad at you right now steam! So mad!)

~~The LIST:~~

NOTE For This LIST: I did ALL these things listed below, -before- booting up steam even once after 3-24-2023. Piece-mail this list at your own risk!

[1] Backup your WHOLE STEAM FOLDER (minus maybe %Path2Steam%/steam/steamapps/common ) before proceeding, so you can replace anything later.

[2] the file " %Path2Steam%\Steam\logs\bootstrap_log.txt " was helpful for me to locate items to remove before each steam restart.

I searched for package updates after 3/25/2023 and wrote a batch to automatically remove them if they are downloaded to the folder.
I put the batch file i created in this folder %Path2Steam%\Steam\ and named it DelPost3-25-2023.bat

here are the contents of "DelPost3-25-2023.bat"

Code:

for /f "tokens=*" %%a IN ('C:\Windows\System32\xcopy *.* /d:3-25-2023 /L /I null') do if exist "%%~nxa" del "%%~nxa"

I made sure i had a copy of it in a different folder, or a zip file, as it deletes itself as well when its run.
It simply looks for anything with a modified date after 3-25-2023 and deletes it from The Folder Its Run Within. (So don't run it from anyplace else! That's Your Warning!)

I then used powershell to change the modified date of "DelPost3-25-2023.bat" to 3-34-2023 00:01:00.

So it would not delete itself any more. But you don't need to go that far. if you WANT to however, heres the powershell line i used:
Windows key: Type "Powershell" in the search, right click and Run As Administrator:

Code:

(Get-Item "%Path2Steam%\Steam\package\DelPost3-25-2023.bat").CreationTime=("24 March 2023 00:01:00")
(Get-Item "%Path2Steam%\Steam\package\DelPost3-25-2023.bat").LastWriteTime=("24 March 2023 00:01:00")
(Get-Item "%Path2Steam%\Steam\package\DelPost3-25-2023.bat").LastAccessTime=("24 March 2023 00:01:00")

Obviously you understand by now """%Path2Steam%""" means YOUR path to steam. usually "C:\Program Files" for most people. But im not most people...
The power-shell stuff above is not really necessary for the batch file, there is definitely other better ways of cleaning out the folder of items after the 3-24-2023 date. this was just My way.

Then before i run/open/execute steam, i make sure i run the "DelPost3-25-2023.bat" file. Ill probably set it on a loop or something automatic eventually.

Keep an eye on %Path2Steam%\Steam\logs\bootstrap_log.txt now with those files it wants to patch with missing, this bootstrap_log will get BIG. BIG BIG, with missing file errors later when we finally run steam!

Moving on down the list to other things that may or may not be necessary....

[3] continuing with all of this, i felt it best to prevent updates for steam client getting into my pc at all, this way:
i edited C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
and added these lines

Code:

127.0.0.1 cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com
127.0.0.1 client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com
127.0.0.1 client-download.steampowered.com
127.0.0.1 media.steampowered.com

This just points all the sites i know of, that download steam client updates to your pc, from being accessed BY your pc. It just loops the requests back. There will probably be more sites steam tries to get the files from in the future, but these are the ones i noticed in the %Path2Steam%\Steam\logs\bootstrap_log.txt file, so it was pretty clear these are the ones to prevent for now. at least for me, in NY state. obviously check your bootstrap_log for others and share them here! ?Teamwork makes the Dream work!!?

[4] Next i proceeded to Regedit and monkeyed around. BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY before throwing in wrenches like i did! :
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Steam
D-WORD 32 create or set "Offline" from 0 to 1 to stay in offline mode.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Valve\Steam
D-WORD 32 create or set "Offline" from 0 to 1 to stay in offline mode.

I don't even know if the above were Necessary. probably not!? but i was just being 'safe' about it.

[5] I then proceeded to change all my steam desktop shortcuts (or where ever you shortcut to steam from! Alter the target as follows!)

Code:

%Path2Steam%\Steam\Steam.exe -console -offline -noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles -overridepackageurl

And don't be a noob and put in %Path2Steam% in the above line you should know by now %Path2Steam% means YOUR path. like C:\Program Files\ or whatever.

[6] ---Disable Steam client updates from Services:-----
I went into the control panel and opened Administrative Tools>Services. (no. i lie.. i just held the Win-key, pressed R, and typed services.msc.)
then i found and I right-clicked Steam Client Services and selected Properties.
I set Client Downloads to Disabled from Manual. ~i think the names here are a little off but close enough to nuke from orbit. ?nod?Normally steam wants it as "Automatic" but i never let it's ego inflate that far.

[7] ---Disable Steam client updates in the steam folder-----
in: C:\Games\utilities\Steam create a file Steam.cfg in that file add just this line:

Code:

BootStrapperInhibitAll=Enable

[8] Pray?

~~~~~That's it. that's where im at with my steam as of now 4-28-2023.

I get no warnings nagging me about EOL for steam on windows7and i get no steam client updates at all.

I do gota come up with a plan for that %Path2Steam%\Steam\logs\bootstrap_log.txt file that keeps inflating with patch missing errors..

maybe ill think of something later and add it to this post in EDIT later. it doesn't worry me too much right now. Just that its eating up a SSD with rewrites... GURR!

Im looking for others to weigh in on my procedure, what was needed? what wasn't? are there easier ways? what unforeseeable problems will i have to find solutions for???

Talk about it! Hope some of what i researched and did helps others and myself in the coming years! Windows 7 Forever!

~ThumpieBunnyEve

That's great research on your part and may help for the short term, but long term, as I believe you indicated is out. Steamy pile of crap (is what I called it circa 2006 and now) is going to one day throw a hissy fit about not being updated just to play a damn game YOU PURCHASED. I would have to read over the ToS, but I gotta wonder if it mentions anything about being screwed over because you as a consumer don't want to run x OS what ever, ya know?

Kinda bears resemblance to this 'right to repair' mantra out there. How Apple and all the other shit bags get away with what they're doing makes me wonder why those in Congress haven't done anything about it. You have any idea where cobalt comes from and who mines it? These companies are pathetic to the max, man. The UN members states, the Chinese apologists, et al need to have their souls - their actually F-ing SOULS mined in hell for a very long time to come.

ThumpieBunnyEve said:

I've done some things to prevent steam from updating the client to.....~ThumpieBunnyEve

Ah, but that is not the issue for me. I find Steam's marketing paradigm abhorrent, so by merely purchasing a game from them I am supporting something i detest. Thus as long as they demand I download anything at all other than the game itself they will never get a penny from me.

For the same reason I no longer buy from EA/Origin nor Ubi.

I hear, and understand. But i've tried to offer solutions, not just rub in the realizations that everything is bad and it will all fall down and burn. There is plenty of that to find. Rare is the attempt of anyone to lend aid to the suffrage.

Above in one of my posts, i outline some ways to prevent steam from updating, by blocking the sites it would try to contact. Vie the hosts file.

I am -still- using the march 24'th version of steam, and can no longer use steam friends-list now in September 2023 due to this. but for now i am still able to log into steam and play multiplayer games with others with mixed mileage.
This is due to some games being only co-op if you receive a friend invite on that machine. (I can still use my phone to respond to message and friend requests using the steam app. But of course can not accept invites to play, from my Phone.

Of course there is the fact that game companies are dropping their support for win 7 piece by piece. No-Mans-Sky forbids win7 users from accessing the online play options completely.
Conan Exiles broke win-7 support with the age of sorc patch. and after repeatedly writing them about it their stance is.
"We here at Funcom don't care. Go ask the forums, and get chastised and bullied for sticking with the OS the game was bought and created on."
Everspace 2 stopped caring to support win7. Though with some poking and prodding you can make it work there.
The Persistence did the same, and you can opt into an 'old' beta that isn't updated any more, in order to bypass the new win10 restriction.

Yes win7 is slowly becoming non viable, as steam forcibly updates games who follow the peer-pressure/contractual-obligation to not develop or bug fix or run in any way, anything related to win7.
But it feels less about our security, or steams security, or even developer security. and more about microsofts security for themselves and their wallet. Through constant collection and auction of your personal data.

In conclusion;
I know come January 2024. I will likely be blocking ALL updates that relate to products on steam, not just the steam client sites.
That's -all- developers. and cleaning my windows firewall of ALL entries related to games.
Because from the way it looks,
jan1,2024 is the day steam will move up from simply pressuring all devs to mandatorily set win10 as a min requirement,
to a stance of, pressure onto developers to actively forbid use of -dx11 launch parameters.
And prevent access to users who had perfectly able pc's with os'es their content was paid for on, from access to said licensed content.

This sort of atrocious disregard for the rights of the paying customer is WHY piracy exists and thrives.