DosFreak

If you check the \bin and \packages folder you'll see a cef folder and files. These are different based on the version of Windows. So XP and 7 files are different. They are all loaded by Steam.exe so if for example MS compiles their files for Vista+ and/or remove the XP specific files and/or change their backend servers to TLS 1.3 then that will likely kill it. If you care about your games remove your reliance on the Steam client. It's not that difficult to get rid of and still play your games. Make sure you have the steam.cfg option set to prevent updates and/or block writes to the packages folder if you insist on using the Steam client.

I looked into this a bit the other day. Steam is looking for APIs that Windows 2000 (not even with Extended Kernel) does not have. It doesn't matter anyway since Steam XP support has been dropped and even though it still works it remains to be seen what the next Steam update will bring and Steam requires TLS 1.2 (at least SteamCMD does) which 2000 does not support. It's best not to use the Steam client anyways since there are working methods to run Steam games without Steam and those methods do work on Windows 2000.

SteamCMD still works fine on XP. Check my vogons post. You'll need to install and enable the TLS 1.2 update. It's a PITA to use and you'll have to redownload all your games. I personally don't see any issues discussing and sharing old versions of the Steam client but it depends on how the forums are moderated. Really though best not to deal with the Steam client since it's unecessary anyway. The community has pretty much solved most of the issues as far as Windows Steam games are concerned.

I had posted a topic previously on this but it was taken down. If you check the Deep Thought forums at vogons you'll see a guide created by myself for running your Steam games without Steam. The only thing you'd potentially need Steam or SteamCMD for is downloading your games and when those no longer work you can always download the games on another computer and copy them over. Currently Steam and SteamCMD (Requires TLS 1.2) but who knows what the next update will bring wether on the client or the backend.

Did some testing with browsers and 2000 and XP over the weekend: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=12102

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=12102 Probably K-Meleon or possibly Palemoon 26.5

After banging my head on it for a week I finally gave up on Mingw. Latest ver I can compile DOSBox that works on Windows 95 is v4.9.3. Anything later and there's an illegal instruction error. The good news is that today I switched to Mingw64 w/ gcc 7.1.0 and as long as I use the msvcrt.dll from Windows 2000 then DOSBox works! I've attached a static binary of the mingw64 build. It's still a WIP Also I did some tests with hxrt in DOS (in vmware) in the thread for anyone that's interested. Next step is to drop kick the mingw guide and update the mingw-w64 guide and then verify that all dependencies are working.

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55706&p=616322#p616322 I'm working on a guide for compiling DOSBox. The above thread includes an attachment with builds for NT3.51 and NT4 of the DOSbox SVN from 9-18-2017 using SDL 1.2.15 Compiled using VS2008 with LegacyExtender. The MinGW builds are older, don't have working ddraw and only work on 95-NT4 with Active Desktop installed. Plan to update the MinGW builds soon.

DOSBox for NT3.5x,(9x,NT4 with and without Active Desktop)-2000 https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55706&p=612195#p609435

All, I'm working on a guide to compile DOSBox. Currently I have a guide that covers Visual Studio 2002-2017, next will be MinGW on Windows and then Linux. Guide: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55706&p=611833#p609435 I've attached the binaries to the first post. I'd appreciate it if you could test the releases and offer any suggestions. Currently this guide is only intended for compiling the official DOSBox source. No third party patches. The NT3.5x to Windows 2000 binaries were compiled using VS2008 with Legacy Extender The XP and Vista+ binaries were compiled with VS2017.