If you're still gaming on Windows XP or Windows Vista, you've been vulnerable to bugs, exploits and hacks for a good number of years now already -- what are you doing? If you just use that machine for gaming though, you'll soon have an even greater reason to jump ship to one of the new Windows operating systems: Valve is ending support for Windows XP and Vista in 2019.
Set to begin on January 1 2019, the "Steam client will no longer run on those versions of Windows," so it's not like you can keep Steam in offline mode and continue to enjoy certain games. You might be able to get away with some single player titles for a while, but as soon as you get on and Steam updates, you're done for.
So why is Valve making this change now? It's because of the new version of Steam it's been working on. You can get a preview of it now if you're running the beta version of the client. It introduces a new UI layout, a new friends list and new navigational tools. The reason all of that is problematic for XP and Vista users, is because it's all built on top of an embedded version of the Chrome browser. That version does not work with XP or Vista, which means that as the year draws to a close, XP and Vista gamers may find themselves with fewer and fewer features on Steam they can utilize.
Once 2019 rolls around, they won't be able to use any of them.
If you do begrudgingly move over though, you'll get plenty of benefits of the newer Windows operating systems, as well as new Steam features like a fancier new chat client with video and GIF support, and better voice chat and a new overlay.
