You could download all your games to external hdd before january.

Publicado originalmente por BNWilliam:

On January 1st, 2026, my 32-bit laptop will no longer support Steam. I would switch to Linux full-time (I’m currently dualbooting), if my old CD-ROM games weren’t such a pain to install. So will I still be able to play my old Steam games, or will I lose my entire library? Will I even be able to reinstall my games? I have so many questions…

You're not losing anything. Provided you still have your login info, the games will still be there when you get a laptop or PC able to run Steam again.

Must be a really old laptop, even the garbage-tier laptop I got for documents and internet supports 64-bit.

People still play Steam games on Windows 7, so you should be fine.
Well, not really, since Steam client won't be updated anymore and might be security issues or bugs, but yeah, some people still do it.

Do a clean install of Win10 22H2 64bit from scratch or install Win11.

Your 32bit key will work on 64bit but you must clean install the OS to make that switch. If it's a Laptop then all you need is a clean install. The OS wil auto activate again after the install has completed and is online

Publicado originalmente por 𝔇𝔬𝔬𝔪𝔤𝔲𝔶:

People still play Steam games on Windows 7, so you should be fine.
Well, not really, since Steam client won't be updated anymore and might be security issues or bugs, but yeah, some people still do it.

Yea, but those users play old games, but on Win7 64bit

Steam will update just not on OS such as Win7, or 8 32bit or 64bit.

No one should be using 32bit OS for modern day computing anyway once Vista/7 came out.

Publicado originalmente por Bad 💀 Motha:

Publicado originalmente por 𝔇𝔬𝔬𝔪𝔤𝔲𝔶:

People still play Steam games on Windows 7, so you should be fine.
Well, not really, since Steam client won't be updated anymore and might be security issues or bugs, but yeah, some people still do it.

Yea, but those users play old games, but on Win7 64bit

Steam will update just not on OS such as Win7, or 8 32bit or 64bit.

No one should be using 32bit OS for modern day computing anyway once Vista/7 came out.

Yeah, x32 is an ancient relic.
It still should have 4gb ram limitation, which is ridiculous with modern soft, when just about any browser uses more than that & that's not counting that Windows itself uses more then that as well.

Yea 32bit OS = just loading up Win7, 8 or 10 and any web browser puts you at the max 4GB RAM all the time and the PC will be very slow and constantly using the PageFile. Even with this kind of PC, an SSD only helps a little bit. Where as the same Laptop with SATA SSD, 8GB RAM and 64bit OS and it'll fly and be very snappy all day long in comparison

32 bit games do work on 64-bit systems. install linux and enjoy

But also; what are the Laptop full specs?

if your win7 you should learn linux. fortunally microsoft win10 eol spun off Linux Mx and WinUx Linuxfx - WinBetaOs news

Publicado originalmente por BNWilliam:

On January 1st, 2026, my 32-bit laptop will no longer support Steam. I would switch to Linux full-time (I’m currently dualbooting), if my old CD-ROM games weren’t such a pain to install. So will I still be able to play my old Steam games, or will I lose my entire library? Will I even be able to reinstall my games? I have so many questions…

This is 2025. I suggest a machine with 64 bit support.
32 bit support in linux is hit & miss.

Are your old CD rOM games available on steam through a download?

Maybe something to think about.

Windows 95 is also 32 bit