Google Chrome is finally saying goodbye to Windows 7. The company has announced that it will no longer support the operating system in its upcoming browser update, which is set to release in the coming weeks. Windows 7 was a popular OS for many years and it was likely one of the reasons why Chrome became so popular. However, with the release of Chrome 57, Google has decided that it’s time to move on from Windows 7. This means that users who use Chrome on Windows will have to switch to another OS if they want to continue using the browser.
Google confirmed a while ago that Chrome 109, due to be released in January 2023, will be the last version to support Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. The next update after that, Chrome 110, will require Windows 10 or 11.
Google says there won’t be any more updates on those old Windows releases, even security patches. That should already sound familiar to anyone still on Windows 7 — Microsoft mostly stopped security updates for the operating system in 2020, but a handful of emergency patches have been pushed since then. Windows 8 is under extended support until July 11, 2023, while updates will end for Windows 8.1 on January 10, 2023.
The open-source version of Google Chrome, known as Chromium, serves as the base for many other web browsers. Without support from Google, most Chromium browsers are also calling it quits for old Windows releases, if they haven’t already.
Microsoft reaffirmed in a blog post today that Edge 109 will be the last version of its web browser on Windows 7, 8/8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2. The company’s Webview2 Runtime will also not be updated beyond v109 on those platforms. Microsoft said, “while Microsoft Edge and Webview2 Runtime versions 109 and earlier will continue to work on these operating systems, those versions will not receive new features, future security updates, or bug fixes.”
Vivaldi said back in November that it will follow Chromium’s support timeline for older Windows releases. A blog post explained, “since Vivaldi is based on Chromium, we will get these updates removing Win7 and Win8.1 support when we next update the Chromium source, to Chromium 110, which will be the foundation for the next Vivaldi version after Vivaldi 5.6.” Brave Browser has started showing alerts to people on Windows 7 about the end of support.
Firefox is the only major (modern) web browser available on Windows not based on Chromium, and Mozilla has not yet decided when Windows 7/8 support will be retired. However, starting with Firefox 100, a specific security patch is required for the browser to work on Windows 7.
Source: Google, Microsoft, Vivaldi, GitHub, Mozilla
