Google is sunsetting support for Chrome running on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in February 2023. The company announced the decision today on an official Chrome support website.
Google Chrome, which supports all versions of Windows starting with Windows 7 currently, will support Windows 10 and Windows 11 only going forward.
“With the release of Chrome 110 (tentatively scheduled for February 7th, 2023), we’ll officially end support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases.”
Microsoft plans to end support for both of its operating systems on January 10, 2023. Windows 7, the older of the two operating system, is in its third year of extended support currently. When Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in 2020, it introduced an option to extend support by up to three years.
Only organizations and businesses could extend support this way, as Microsoft stopped supporting Home editions of Windows 7 in 2020. The companies had to pay Microsoft to join its ESU, Extended Security Updates, program; this program runs out on January 10th, 2023, and Microsoft announced earlier that it won’t extend it any further.
Microsoft released Windows 8.1 three years after Windows 7. Both operating systems will run out of support on the same day: January 10th, 2023. Microsoft won’t extend support for these systems, which means, that neither will receive monthly security updates anymore.
While there is a slim chance that Microsoft will release security updates for unsupported versions of Windows, it is very uncommon. 0Patch promised to deliver 2-years of additional support for both operating systems, but the offer comes at a price.
Google Chrome ends support for Windows 7 and 8.1
Google plans to end support for the two Windows versions on February 7th, 2023. Chrome 110 Stable will be released on that date, and it will be the last version of Chrome released officially for Windows 7 and 8.1.
Chrome users who run the browser on Windows 7 or 8.1 devices may continue to do so, but they won’t receive updates anymore. The browsers will become vulnerable to attacks, as security issues won’t be fixed anymore.
Google recommends that affected users switch to Windows 10 or Windows 11 to continue receiving updates for Chrome.
Other browser manufacturers, including Microsoft, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi or Mozilla, have yet to make announcements regarding end of support. At least some may decide to support their browsers after support by Microsoft ends officially; this happened in the past already. When Microsoft ended support for Windows XP in 2014, most browser makers announced support extensions. Mozilla ended support four years after Microsoft ended support for the operating system.
Windows 7 devices hold a sizeable share of the desktop market. Microsoft does not release statistics about the distribution of its operating systems. Third-party services such as Statcounter track usage across a subset of Internet sites. According to the September 2022 statistics, Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 devices make about 14% of the Windows desktop market. Translated to devices, this would mean that millions of Windows PCs run these versions.
What Chrome users may do about it
Chrome users who run the browser on Windows 7 or 8.1 devices face a tough decision. While it is in theory possible to stay on Windows 7 and run an outdated browser, it is not recommended from a security point of view.
Tip: select Menu > Help > About Google Chrome to display the current version installed on the device.
Switching to a different browser may extend the period of use, but not indefinitely. Some may extend support, especially if a sizeable number of users is still using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
All Windows 7 and 8.1 devices should be compatible with Windows 10. While that means running upgrades, it extends support until 2025 at the very least. Microsoft may decide to extend Windows 10 support, considering that many devices can’t be upgraded to Windows 11, because of the system requirement changes.
