Many users have been wondering why for some time Mozilla’s plans to support Firefox for Windows 7 and 8.1. I’m sure you remember, but at the beginning of this year 2023, Microsoft considered the life cycle of both versions of its operating system to be over, as we told you here about 7 and here about 8.1, two operating systems that the mainstream valued very differently. people. users, but despite no longer being supported, including security updates, they are still present on many systems that were unable or unwilling to make the jump to Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Hand in hand with the end of official support, we were able to see how to do it many companies joined in abandoning these old versions of Windows. Google did it with Chrome and also with Drive, Epic Games with Fortnite, Microsoft “took” Edge as well and even if it gave a little extra time, Steam has already started warning its users not to update to the latest operating system or lose access to their game library January 1, 2024. That means the library will still be there, of course, but they’ll need a newer version of Windows to access it and install and play their collection titles.

However, Mozilla has been considering paddling upstream since late last year., extending Firefox’s support for “down” operating systems much further than when its main competitors, namely Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, abandoned said ship. A movement that can address one or two reasons (and I’m inclined to think there’s a bit of each in the final choice):

• Extend the life of computers that cannot be upgraded to Windows 10/11.
• We stick with users of those versions of Windows who used Chrome or Edge until now, hoping that in the future, when they upgrade to a more recent version of Windows, they will have already established the habit of using Firefox as their main web browser.

For whatever reason (or both), today we finally know the future plans with respect to the operating systems of the past. According to the official support text Mozilla support for Firefox on Windows 7/8.1 will be extended until September 2024the date from which it will stop receiving security updates and therefore its use will be infrequent or not recommended.

We can read it in this document the last mainstream version with Windows 7/8.1 support will be Firefox 115 (current version is 113.0.2) whose expected release date is July 4, 2023. After his arrival, these users will be automatically “moved” to the Firefox ESR channel (Extended Support Release), through which they will receive security updates published by Mozilla until September next year. Of course, the news that arrives with Firefox 116 and later will be lost, as support will be strictly for security updates, not features.