Google to End Support for Chrome on Windows 7/8.1 in Early 2023
Google announced today that it will finally stop supporting its Chrome web browser on Windows 7 and 8.1 in February 2023.
“With the release of Chrome 110 (tentatively scheduled for February 7th, 2023), we’ll officially end support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1,” a Google support document explains. “You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases.”
Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7—after three years of additional support for paying enterprise customers via the Extended Security Update (ESU) program—on January 10, 2023, the same day that Windows 8.1 support will also end.
Google says that older Chrome versions will continue to run on Windows 7 and 8.1, but the firm strongly encourages users to move to a supported Windows version, which will then include Windows 10 and 11.
Google tried to end Chrome support on Windows 7 in early 2020 when that system went out of support for most individuals and smaller businesses. But it initially extended support to January 2022 because so many enterprise customers were still using Windows 7. So it must have extended support at least once since then.