Google’s hugely popular Chrome browser will stop running on millions of PCs around the world in a little over a year’s time.
The tech giant will stop supporting the Windows 7 operating system in January 2022, meaning users will have to upgrade to Windows 10.
The deadline has actually been extended by six months due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Support for the older OS, which was launched by Microsoft in 2009, will end sometime around January 15, 2022. The reason for dropping support is that Microsoft itself doesn’t support Windows 7 any more.
That means that anyone still using the older software could be putting themselves at risk of security vulnerabilities.
However, it’s estimated that millions of computers around the world are still running Microsoft Windows 7. According to NetMarketShare, a whopping 20.93% of computers accessing the web are using Windows 7.
‘This year has presented a lot of challenges for organizations of all sizes,’ explained Max Christoff, engineering director of Chrome at Google.
‘Facing difficult business and technology decisions, supporting a changing work environment, and navigating uncertainty are among just a few of the issues IT leaders have faced over the course of 2020,’ he wrote in a blog post.
‘While the past few months served as a catalyst for technology investments and digital transformation initiatives for many organizations, for others, some planned IT projects may have had to take a back seat.’
‘After assessing the current situation, and based on feedback from our valued enterprise customers, Chrome is extending our support for Windows 7 until at least January 15, 2022.
‘That’s a 6-month extension from our previously communicated date of July 15, 2021. We’ll continue to evaluate the conditions our enterprise customers are facing, and communicate any additional changes in the future.’
Needless to say, if you’re still using Windows 7 on your own computer, you should consider upgrading to Windows 10. Whether or not you use the Google Chrome browser on it.
