Can't start Steam since yesterday on Win 7

[GamerRick]

If I try to start the game or just try to start Steam first, Steam freezes at the first screen it shows (the black borderless window with just its logo).  It won't start Oblivion no matter what I try.

Did Steam finally kill Win 7 support yesterday?

If so I may have to buy the game (for the 3rd time) from GOG.  For now I am playing FNV from GOG.

Edited September 14 by GamerRick

[AndalayBay]

It's probably due to Steam. They stopped supporting Win 7 in January.

[GamerRick]

Yea, but it worked until yesterday.  Hence the question.

[AndalayBay]

It relies on Chrome, so it could be Steam or Google that updated something.

[GamerRick]

I guess I am the only one here still on Win 7.  

Chrome still works but does not update itself any more.  I am trying to keep this 14 year old computer (that I built myself) alive.  Maybe time to finally get a new one.

[Surilindur]

Depending on the hardware the computer has (mainly graphics), you could look into some form of Linux to able to use the latest Steam and other things. If you would replace the entire computer anyway, maybe trying out an OS replacement first would be an interesting way to learn new things and save some money if it ends up working for you.

Some modding tools are a bit wonky to use compared to Windows, and even with the amount of automated Wine setup (via Proton) on Steam on Linux, you will need to do some small tinkering to get the CSE running, and the script editor is not exactly amazing via Wine. Whether the trade-off between saving money/hardware and having to do a lot of tinkering (to get the OS set up the way you want, look into hardware-specific tweaks/workarounds, then figuring out how to get the modding tools running, etc.) is worth it is up to personal preference, I think.

If you have not looked into Linux before, just 'try Linux' is probably really vague, but I think a great way to start would be cross-referencing some YouTube videos on how to install different distributions, or actually trying them out in a virtual machine or elsewhere. Some videos comparing the differences between them might also be useful, but I guess most of the people making such videos have strong personal preferences. Maybe something to start by could be Fedora or one of its 'spins' with a different user interface, or Ubuntu or its various 'flavours' with a different UI if you really want to try it (but I personally would not in 2024), or any other distribution like Arch Linux - the actual one not the derivatives - if you want a build-your-own-system experience to some extent and like working with the command line, something like that (if you do not like the Windows command line, that is fine, I doubt anyone likes it because it is horrible). In the end, the main differences between the various distributions are probably in the update cadence, user interface (usually decision between GNOME and KDE Plasma, but other ones like LXQt might work better for older hardware), and some tooling (software package management, firewalls). Quite a few 'popular' (from the Reddit posts I have seen, usually gaming-specific) distributions are also just different 'versions' of a parent one, like Ubuntu is based off Debian, and some others ones are based off Ubuntu, so unless you really need something specific from one of such derivatives, it usually makes more sense to look into the original distribution instead (in my opinion, others might disagree).

Just some thoughts on the whole computer replacement thing, because replacing working hardware due to software becoming unsupported feels so wasteful, not to mention expensive.

[RomanR]

This is a problem which I'm facing too, I want to run my old games, but time for operating systems on which they work ran out long ago (believe it or not I'm still running dual boot of Win 7 and XP with my Ryzen 2700). I used some tricks to access my bank for example (mimicking Win 10), but I know this solution is only temporaly. For GamerRick, I would think of these:

1. Bying Oblivion on GOG. Although still at 20 EUR, it's a cheapest solution and without any DRM or online depedence, it should run until his computer finally die. Online dependency is a reason why I didn't buy new game in a long time.

2. Keep the old computer while purchase or build a new one too. Today in 64bit world is only matter of time when support for 32bit apps will removed in all OS and such old games will run only under some sort of emulation or not run at all. If he isn't much to new games, even the one he will build on budget components will have at least same computing power and will be more power efficient than old one. Not to mention that new software will run slow on his old computer propably, much software became quite resource hungry as time passed, including OS.

3. Build a new one and use some sort of emulation for old games. Well, for games of DOS or Win95/98 era there are sufficient emulators done and even GOG is often using them as running enviroment (DosBox, DosBox-X, for 3DFx nGlide as a wrapper). For XP era... yes, there are WINE but still... I would prefer something like tailored virtual machine. Unfortunately to my knowledge they aren't made for gaming and acceleration support is (both DirectX and OpenGL, also ability to assign at least 512MB to VRAM would be nice) for example in Virtual BOX still experimental. I would be really glad if someone would point me to something similar for ease of use like emulators of old consoles. In my opinion most difficult solution with uncertain result for now.

[AndalayBay]

We keep our old machines around to run old games, if possible. I've been keeping a Pentium MMX running Windows XP. It doesn't even connect to the internet.

We also run Linux on others to use as file servers. Even Ubuntu has limits though. It won't run on that Pentium for example.

Back to the issue at hand. @GamerRick, what's keeping you from upgrading to Windows 10? I have been able to upgrade again when my hard drive failed. You'll need to keep trying, but eventually it will accept your Windows 7 license key.

Our newest PC's are from 2015 or so. They won't run Windows 11, but I'll hold off on doing that for as long as I can.

 

 

[LenaWolfBravil]

On 9/15/2024 at 9:16 PM, GamerRick said:

I guess I am the only one here still on Win 7.  

Chrome still works but does not update itself any more.  I am trying to keep this 14 year old computer (that I built myself) alive.  Maybe time to finally get a new one.

Some people I know still run Win 7 and Oblivion from the disk or from GOG. There is absolutely no need to have Steam for Oblivion.

My PC is 15 years old, but running Win 10 - I bought it refurbished and pre-installed a few years back. No intention to upgrade - not needed. So for you I think indeed a GOG Oblivion would solve the problem with the least damage to your wallet, as @RomanR said.

[OpalEyedFan]

just chiming in... I use my win8 pc especially for Oblivion simply because of TES4Gecko. I have a win11 pc I use for Starfield and SkyrimVR but it doesnt run TES4Gecko. I have Oblivion on disc so it works without Steam. If I could manage modding Oblivion without TES4Gecko, then I would have it on my win11 pc for sure. I own Oblivion on both Steam and GOG as well and the GOG version is as good as any I guess