If your devices are still running Windows 7 or 8.1, listen up: according to a recent announcement by Google, the company will officially end Chrome support for the two aforementioned operating systems in line with the tentative release of Chrome 110 on February 7, 2023.
While Google Chrome will continue working after the update, it will no longer receive any feature updates and security patches on devices running these OSs. This increases users" and businesses" risks of falling prey to online attacks if they continue to use Windows 7 or 8.1.
"You’ll need to ensure your device is running Windows 10 or later to continue receiving future Chrome releases," Google states in its Chrome Help Blog. "This matches Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 7 ESU and Windows 8.1 extended support on January 10th, 2023."
Windows 7, which reached its end of support back in January 2020, still has a 10.68% desktop market share worldwide, according to StatCounter. This means that there are still many people worldwide using the OS. Windows 8.1, on the other hand, holds a measly 2.7% market share. Given that more apps are dropping support for the two OSs aside from Chrome, it"s best for users to finally upgrade to Windows 10 and 11.
Source: Google via AndroidAuthority