Steam quietly stops working for Windows 2000

[dsheinem]

There must be some way to get the audio program working in XP...If it was pricey it would be odd if the company completely dropped support or if there isn't some homemade patch or something..

[Hobie-wan]

There must be some way to get the audio program working in XP...If it was pricey it would be odd if the company completely dropped support or if there isn't some homemade patch or something..

Indeed I was thinking the same thing. 2K and XP are very similar. Perhaps it is just some silly copy protection that there's a bypass for? Slave Zero was a game that 'only worked on 9X and ME', trouble was the only issue was that the copy protection didn't work with 2K and XP. Apply a no CD crack and the game worked great on XP. And yes I have the big box PC version, so I had no qualms about doing so.

Maybe this will help?

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.p ... 2664bfbb46

[J T]

Thanks for that link Hobie. That might be very useful. I do have to use that stupid dongle for Logic, and it's really glitchy. Sometimes it doesn't recognize that the dongle is attached even when it is. If nothing else, that could work for just not having to deal with the dongle.

As for now, my version of Steam is still working on Win2k, but thanks to those who have offered suggestions in case it ever malfunctions. I may have to play around to see if I can get Logic to work on a new OS. I would love to get it working on Vista or Windows 7. I should have some XP discs lying around somewhere too, so if needs be, I could attempt a dual boot in the future. My Win2k machine is so old though. If I could get all my old software working on something else, I would gladly ditch it. It's very slow and has a weak graphics card. It just has a lot of great sound gear because I built it to be an audio work station back when I was more heavily involved in making music.

[J T]

I understand you have your reasons for keeping your older machine around, but expecting modern-day support to continue for it is pretty outrageous. Set up an XP Virtual Machine/dual boot if you require older o/s support on a newer machine. Either that, or use XP with a netbook (that's what I do).

It's not so much that I expect support, I just want my old games to still function. I would be happy to just never update again if that were an option, but the client auto updates without a feature to turn off auto update. One of the latest updates is set to turn off Steam on Windows 2000 machines, so why should I be forced to download that when it's working fine now?

[J T]

Microsoft end-of-lifed Windows 2000 on July 13, 2000. How can you expect Valve to continue to support that platform?

I don't know much about Steam so I suggest contacting their support for questions. What is their policy for the games you purchased when a platform is retired? Can you continue to download those games on a newer platform and install them on an older platform? Or do you need to archive the games for your own benefit?

Do you own the games purchased on Steam? Or are you only entitled to use them as long as you have an active account with them? Do you need the Steam client running or connected to play your games?

I tried to find the answers to my questions but Steam doesn't really tell you how it works.

To answer you questions about Steam since I was confused about these things when I started using it as well:
Yes, you can continue to download your games on a new platform or an older one.
You technically don't own games on Steam and are paying for a license to use them, though this same legal jargon is often used in boxed PC games too. You are entitled to play the games as long as you have an account that is not banned. Steam has stated in the past that if they were to ever go out of business for some reason, that people would be given a code to unlock their games from the Steam client. You currently need the Steam client to be running to play your games on Steam, though as Mr. Popo pointed out, there are some exceptions.