You’ll need to be running Windows 10 or 11 to continue using Chrome in the new year
Source: Microsoft
Anyone with even a passing interest in information security knows that being as safe as possible means keeping your devices updated. When a major new operating system comes out, though, sometimes users end up dragging their feet before upgrading, whether they’re concerned that a new OS might introduce software incompatibilities, or just slow them down as they re-learn workflows. Chrome has been threatening to leave old Windows users behind for a while now, and we’ve been wondering when Google would drop Windows 7 compatibility ever since Microsoft ended mainstream support back in 2020. This week we finally start learning how things are going to end, with next year’s release of Chrome 110.
Chrome will no longer support Windows 7 nor Windows 8.1 upon the release of Chrome 110, currently scheduled to hit stable on February 7, 2023. From that point on, you’ll need to be running at least Windows 10 to maintain access to new builds.
While Google won’t be doing anything to stop users of older platforms from continuing to install and run earlier releases of Chrome, they’d be missing out on the latest critical security and usability enhancements.
If you’re still a Windows-10-avoiding holdout at this point, well, congratulations on your resolve, but it’s time to move on. And hey, just think about it: if you take the plunge on Windows 11, you can finally check out the Android app support you’ve been reading about all these months. If that’s not reason to upgrade, we don’t know what is.
