Still running Windows 7 or 8? Prepare for an Epic fail – Epic Games Store follows Steam and drops support for older operating systems

The Epic Games Store has followed in the footsteps of Steam in dropping support for Microsoft’s desktop operating systems which are older than Windows 10 – although this hasn’t happened quite yet.

Epic gave notice in an announcement that support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 (or 8.1) will cease from June 2024, so just over two months’ time. Note that Windows 10 32-bit will also be dropped, but not the 64-bit version of the OS that the vast majority of folks run. There's no 32-bit version of Windows 11, of course.

So, support from June will be limited to Windows 10 64-bit and Windows 11 – and for macOS, version 10.13 or newer of Apple’s OS.

As mentioned, Epic is a bit later than Valve in closing down support for these older operating systems, because Steam enacted this measure at the start of 2024. As you might expect, there weren’t many PC gamers that were affected, going by Valve’s stats – fewer than 1% of Steam users had Windows 7/8 installed at the time. And the same is likely true for the Epic Games Store.


Analysis: Time to upgrade?

For the small niche of gamers who will be hit by this move, this will obviously be somewhat disappointing. Mind you, when June rolls around, this doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use the Epic Games Store at all. It’ll still work, it just won’t get any updates going forward, or be supported in any way. This means that after a while, bits of functionality might fail and the launcher will eventually probably start to misfire or stop working entirely.

Naturally, without updates, you’ll also be open to any vulnerabilities in Epic’s client, but then if you’re still running Windows 7 or 8, that’ll be the least of your worries – the exploits open to leverage in those systems will be far more worrying in nature, of course.

And that’s exactly why you shouldn’t be running Windows 7 or 8 any longer, anyway. It’s time to upgrade, one way or another – by which we mean make the move to Windows 10 (or Windows 11, if your PC spec is up to it), or take the obvious alternate route, a Linux distro (there are some solid Windows-like choices out there, after all).

What about Windows 10 32-bit users? Well, Microsoft does still support them, but there are very few of these folks out there now (certainly in the gaming world – Steam’s hardware survey doesn’t even list Windows 10 32-bit anymore, and hasn’t for a long time).

Via Neowin

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WhatsApp for Android is making it much easier to find older messages

WhatsApp users on Android just got access to a feature that iPhone owners have been making use of for a while now: the ability to search through conversations by date, which makes it much easier to dig out old chats.

The new feature was announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his WhatsApp channel (via TechCrunch), and is apparently rolling out to Android devices now – so if you don't have it already, you should see it soon.

To use it, head into any of your chats, then tap the three dots (top right) and Search. You should then see a calendar icon in the top-right corner, which you can tap on to jump to messages sent and received on a particular day. You can also tap on the name of the conversation at the top to find the Search option.

This is all very similar to how the 'search by date' function works on other platforms, but Android has been lagging behind in this respect – even WhatsApp for the web offers the option to search through chats by date.

Regular updates

WhatsApp date search

How the ‘search by date’ feature looks on Android (Image credit: Future)

This is of course a handy and welcome addition for WhatsApp users on Android, as it could save a serious amount of scrolling – assuming of course, that you can remember the date when you got the message or media file you're looking for.

To give the WhatsApp team credit, it's an app that gets new features on a regular basis, though not always at the same time on Android and iOS. The app actually looks different depending on which mobile OS you're using – Android puts the navigation tabs at the top, for example, but they're underneath the chat list on iOS.

Despite these disparities, the app continues to grow in popularity as a cross-platform, secure, and reliable messaging platform. It's estimated to have around 2 billion active users worldwide, which is a fair chunk of the global population.

In recent months we've seen WhatsApp roll out upgrades for photo and video sharing, as well as test an expansion of the Chat Lock feature, making it easier to protect certain conversations across multiple devices.

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Watch out: soon some older PCs will lose Windows 11 support

Since its launch, Windows 11 has been plagued by compatibility issues due to its high-spec demands that excluded plenty of PCs. But now even more will be left in the cold thanks to a new update.

The upcoming version 24H2 update, which has been rumored to launch in September 2024, will no longer boot on computers that use very old processors; specifically, the kind that doesn’t support the POPCNT (population count) instruction, according to Twitter/X user Bob Pony.

Many of the system files will require the POPCNT CPU instruction from the Windows 11 kernel to the USB XHCI drivers, the tweet states, meaning that any processors without it cannot run the operating system.

POPCNT was made standard in CPUs in the mid-2000s starting from AMD's Barcelona architecture, followed by Intel's first-gen Core i-series processors. This means that PCs manufactured in the past 15 years shouldn’t be affected by this new Windows 11 requirement. It also shouldn’t affect modern PCs unsupported by the OS, so those who've managed to find a workaround would still be able to run Windows post-update.

Windows 11 support could be the better option 

As user-unfriendly as this new update will be for those running PCs with old processors, it makes sense from Microsoft’s viewpoint to force users to run Windows 11 on newer machines. The 24H2 update will be ushering in some massive changes that will heavily focus on next-gen AI experiences, as well as various performance and security updates and new features.

In order to ensure that all these new features actually work as planned with the OS, the tech giant needs to make sure that spec requirements are up to snuff to run them – especially as it expands Microsoft Copilot support, since that’s supposed to enhance the Windows interface and boost productivity in terms of apps, search, and more.

And as off-putting as the growing emphasis on Copilot and other AI features and tools can be, at least Microsoft is only focusing on updating Windows 11 and doesn’t seem to be switching to a whole new OS, Windows 12. While tempting, such a move could fracture an already heavily divided user base that overwhelmingly still supports Windows 10.

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Apple iMessage vs Google RCS is complicated… but what about older phones?

Since iOS 5 back in 2011, Apple introduced a new message standard called iMessage. If you use an iOS or Mac device, you’ll most likely have used the feature through the Messages app.

These show as a blue bubble that allows you to send reactions, emojis, GIFs, and more.

However, a relatively new standard in messaging has started to appear in recent years called RCS (Rich Communication Services), which is trying to replace the SMS standard that iMessage uses.

RCS is designed to bring the same functionality that iMessage, WhatsApp and other messaging apps offer in a form that works across multiple types of device.

Google's Head of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, has accused Apple of bullying by forcing users to use iMessage instead of RCS. But Lockheimer, and others, are forgetting those who don’t use smartphones, and that’s a problem.

The pros and cons of RCS

If you use an Android phone through the messages app, and you live in the United States, you will be able to reply with reactions, emojis through an encrypted connection. That's something that SMS doesn’t provide.

Since RCS made its introduction in 2008, the Open Mobile Alliance has been leading the way in trying to replace the SMS standard with this. It makes it easier for users to share content without being charged for it, such as how MMS, or picture messaging still does to this day.

However, the standard is limited. Many carriers in the United States haven’t agreed to implement RCS, leaving it spotty across cellular networks at best. While some other countries, such as the United Kingdom, currently have no carriers supporting RCS.

Combine this with the fact that Universal Profile, which is the latest attempt for carriers to implement the same RCS standard across the phones that each provides, has been delayed. It’s essentially pot luck in whether your phone and carrier will feature RCS.

But there’s yet another handicap to this. Google is decided to activate RCS within its own Messages app, which means that regardless of the carrier you’re on, you’ll be able to use the service. 

This applies to UK users, but others would rather send messages through WhatsApp and other apps.

Google’s Head of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer tried to rectify his comments over the weekend, alongside linking to a TikTok video of Maxwell Weinbach giving his reasons for why he thought it was bad that Apple hadn’t implemented RCS.

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But while they both provide compelling arguments on one side, there’s another aspect that Google and Weinbach have both left out. This could also be why Apple has yet to implement RCS.

Forgetting the casual user

The majority of us have family members who simply refuse to upgrade to a smartphone. Or at least, refuse to upgrade to a newer smartphone that was released after 2011.

It’s a comfort blanket to some where they’re familiar with the design and the features that the old phone brings. They’re comfortable in using SMS messaging, the camera app and Facebook, and nothing else.

RCS doesn’t factor into this. While Google’s Messages app requires Android 5.0 and above, it’s pot luck whether older phones will support RCS within the app. And that’s if your friend or family member is using Google’s Messages app on their phone.

While the feature is clearly beneficial to those who message frequently, influencers and heads of these departments seem to be missing the bigger picture on who RCS benefits and whether there should be more efforts to make RCS standardized, rather than from one app or waiting for some carriers to come on board.

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Apple to pay up to $500 million for deliberately slowing older iPhones

Towards the end of 2017, Apple fessed up, admitting that it had been deliberately and secretly slowing older models of iPhone in order to eke out extra life from their aging batteries. Understandably, the company’s customers weren’t happy and the stealthy throttling led to several lawsuits.

Now, the Cupertino firm has filed a settlement in a California court, agreeing to pay up to $ 500 million (with a minimum of $ 310 million) in the form of payments to affected US customers.

This includes $ 25 to anyone who owned one of the affected iPhones (listed below) and sums of either $ 1,500 or $ 3,500 to members of the class action lawsuit. 

These amounts will vary depending on how many people claim, as individual payouts will decrease if they exceed the maximum total of $ 500 million. However, if fewer people claim, the $ 310 million will go further for each individual (after $ 93 million is taken off for legal fees, of course).

Affected smartphones are considered any of the following, so long as they were running iOS 10.2.1 or later or, in the case of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, it could have been running iOS 11.2 or later so long as it was doing so before December 21, 2017.

The case against Apple claimed that, due to the processor speeds slowing, consumers were being led to believe their current smartphone was nearing its end of life earlier than it actually was.

This prompted them to upgrade to a newer model, at considerable cost, when they could have simply replaced the battery had they known that was the cause of the issue.

The settlement allows Apple to deny that it did anything wrong in the legal sense, and the individual compensation has been described as “fair, reasonable, and adequate” by lawyers representing the consumers, according to Reuters.

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