Although both operating systems are considered very old, for them the consequences of ending support for such a popular browser can be significant. Windows 7 was first released in 2009, and in 2020 Microsoft officially stopped supporting it. Despite this, statistics show that the operating system still runs on a large number of devices: last year the number was estimated at at least 100 million computers. This means that many individuals or businesses may soon have both an unsupported operating system and an unsupported web browser, which can pose a significant security risk.

What will happen to Chrome?

Google will release the final version of the Chrome browser for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 next year. Chrome 110 is scheduled for a tentative release on February 7, 2023.

Note that Chrome will continue to work after version 110, but will not receive future updates on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. This means that the company will no longer remove the vulnerabilities found and some sites will eventually start giving notices about an old browser and the need to upgrade to a new technology version.

The company recommends that you upgrade to the latest version of Windows. Today, Windows 10 or higher is Windows 11.

At the same time, it is worth remembering that Windows 10 is also becoming increasingly unimportant. As version 11 is slowly rolling out to users’ computers, Microsoft is planning the “death” of the previous version of the operating system. Support for Windows 10 across all editions (Home, Pro and Pro Education and Pro for Workstations) will end three years later – October 2025. After that, only emergency patches will be released to fix critical vulnerabilities if found. Therefore, there is no doubt that Google Chrome will work on Windows 10 until at least 2025.

It is unknown whether Google will be followed by other Chromium-powered browser developers.