It is time. Back in the not-so-distant past, when Microsoft was bidding farewell to Windows 7, browser makers like Google and Mozilla stood their ground in offering support for the retiring OS.
Chrome and Firefox both kept working and getting updates for the old platforms, even as Microsoft forged ahead with Edge and dropped support for old browsers.
But if you are still rocking these operating systems, then listen up. Google has announced its intention to end support for Chrome early next year on both these older versions of the operating systems—the fan favorite Windows 7 and the problem-solver Windows 8.1.
The search engine giant made this formal in a post on its Chrome Help Blog:
“You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases. This matches Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 7 ESU and Windows 8.1 extended support on January 10th, 2023.”
This is in line with the tentative release of Chrome 110 on February 7, 2023, and Microsoft’s looming retirement date for Windows 8.1.
While Google Chrome will continue working after the update — and well, old versions of the web browser will continue to be available on several websites that host them — it will no longer receive any feature updates and security patches on devices powered by these operating systems.
This retirement, therefore, increases the risks that users and businesses face falling prey to online attacks if they continue to use Chrome on Windows 7 and 8.1.
And there are hundreds of millions of them out there.
Windows 7 may have reached the end of support back in January 2022, but it still commands a 10.68% share of the desktop market worldwide. Windows 8.1, on the other hand, holds a measly 2.7% slice of the pie. All figures via StatCounter.
With this in mind, it makes sense to start preparing for the migration if you are one of these users.
Right about now.
