Published: November 09, 2022 on our newsletter Security Fraud News & Alerts Newsletter.
Without great fanfare, Google has announced that in February 2023, users of Windows Versions 7, 8, and 8.1 will stop receiving support for their version of Google Chrome. The dwindling numbers of users and the rapidly aging code used in these versions of Windows have put the final nail in the coffin for users who have become accustomed to Google updates and other forms of support.
However, all is not lost. If you are one of these legacy Windows users, it is not as if your current version of Chrome is simply going to freeze up overnight or disappear, taking your files saved on the Cloud with it. You will simply not receive Google updates and support. But that’s not a good thing either.
When a product is sunsetted, or no longer supported yet you keep using it, you are putting yourself at risk of various cybersecurity attacks. That is because the developer, in this case Microsoft and Google, will no longer send patches or updates even if a serious security issue is found.
Google's actions are in line with its commitment to support Windows 7, as long as Microsoft was supporting version 7 under its Extended Security Update program. That support has now fallen away, so Google is actually moving in lockstep with Microsoft. This means, that if you’re using Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, you will need to upgrade the operating system too.
Google will opt out of supporting these older Windows versions (including Microsoft 365 using these operating systems) when it releases the stable and market-ready version of Chrome 110, which is tentatively scheduled to go live on February 7, 2023.
Your options for coping with this change are very limited; upgrade to a newer version of Windows and Chrome. Windows 10 is the minimum required to continue to receive Google support. But let's be honest for a moment. Windows 7 was released on 22 October 2009 - it's time for an upgrade.
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