Current state of Steam on Windows XP

[xp128bit]

Steam stoppped supporting Windows XP back at the start of 2019 and there was a workaround by patching an old version to run but that has gradually become more and more broken. I'm the guy who has made a video on how to run steam on windows xp but that video was taken down last year. After a long time I tried setting up steam on XP again to see if anything has changed and it has indeed become slightly more broken. It's still possible to login but now you have to enter your steam guard code each time you try to login using packinfoconvertor. Downloading games is still completely broken and transferring your games from another computer doesn't work either as they'll get stuck on 'update queued' in library and you can't launch . I managed to get the original Half-Life to work by transferring the game and it's acf file, it showed 'update queued' and didn't launch from the Steam library but worked when launching from the games exe file. Online servers worked too. https://imgur.com/a/btUL9YP 

I managed to get CS 1.6 to work too https://imgur.com/a/YB071x2 Since it installs into the same folder as Half-Life, I had to add the parameter '-game cstrike' to a shortcut of hl.exe. Multiplayer servers work too. Other goldsrc games will work too.

Source games like portal 1 and 2, hl2, cs source and hl2 deathmatch no longer work, cs source and hl2 deathmatch multiplayer stopped working since 2021 due to them requiring a newer version of steam for online features. Hl2 is drm free but no longer works after some updates it had for steam deck. Portal 2 stopped working after an update last year, probably for steam deck too.

At this point I do not recommend installing and trying Steam on Windows XP, it has become broken to the extent that it's pretty much useless since you can't install anything and if you do transfer games from another PC, they're still not likely to work since you can't launch them from library. As well as having to enter your steam guard code each time you want to open it. You are much better off downloading your games from GOG, physical copies etc. 

Update 2024/04/07: Half-Life and other GoldSrc games no longer work on XP using this method since the 25th anniversary update for Half-Life that released late last year which broke XP compatibility.

Edited April 7, 2024 by xp128bit

[kuja killer]

Hello, is there anyway to force steam to ignore that "updating game" window when trying to load a game ? After i saw this post, i opened steam just to make sure it worked, it still opens fine for me on XP, i only have 1 single game "rosenkreuzstilette" -- And for some reason it doesnt want to run because it thinks there's an update for it when it's not true. The game was finished in 2018, version 2.02c

I tried checking the settings but the 3 settings are all "auto update" ...update when launching, or update before other games" which is really freaking stupid. Why is there no option to completely STOP or block this annoying update window ?? when clearly there is NOT any updates for it at all and never will be.

Is there anyway to get past that annoying false message ??

[xp128bit]

On 10/14/2023 at 1:45 AM, kuja killer said:

Hello, is there anyway to force steam to ignore that "updating game" window when trying to load a game ? After i saw this post, i opened steam just to make sure it worked, it still opens fine for me on XP, i only have 1 single game "rosenkreuzstilette" -- And for some reason it doesnt want to run because it thinks there's an update for it when it's not true. The game was finished in 2018, version 2.02c

I tried checking the settings but the 3 settings are all "auto update" ...update when launching, or update before other games" which is really freaking stupid. Why is there no option to completely STOP or block this annoying update window ?? when clearly there is NOT any updates for it at all and never will be.

Is there anyway to get past that annoying false message ??

I wasn't able to find a way, for some reason the steam client doesn't launch in offline mode too.

[xp128bit]

Update October 2024: Half-Life and other goldsrc games can still be made to work on XP using the same method I mentioned earlier but downloading the 'steam_legacy - Pre-25th Anniversary Build' from the beta participation menu on Steam on my main pc and then transferring the game folder and its acf file to XP. Online servers and CS1.6 work as well. Other goldsrc games are likely to still work too.