Google Chrome was supposed to work on Windows 7 only until 2021. However, owing to the current pandemic situation, Google has decided to add another year of support to ensure its Chrome browser works reliably on Windows 7.
Companies Continuing to Work With Windows 7 As Primary Operating System Is Reason For Continued Chrome Support?
It is amply clear that Windows 7 continues to remain an actively used operating system, especially in the corporate world. A large number of employees and their workstations, around the world, seem to remain loyal to Windows 7 despite the operating system being officially discontinued by Microsoft. The Windows OS maker had officially ended support for Windows 7 earlier this year. This means Microsoft will not offer any support in the form of bug fixes or protection against viruses and security loopholes despite being discovered and reported. Although Windows 7 is no longer supported, reports indicate it is still running on millions of computers across the world. Windows 10 has overtaken Windows 7 in usage but the latter continues to be used in several companies. Google indicates it took into consideration several of its enterprise customers and realized that their plans to move from Windows 7 to Windows 10 have taken a “back seat” this past year when compared to other IT support and network needs. A study commissioned by Google reportedly found that 21 percent of companies are still in the process of migrating to Windows 10 and 1 percent is about to start “soon.” Hence Google has decided to extend support for Chrome browser on Windows 7. Google had set July 2021 as the month when it would stop fully supporting Chrome. At that point, the browser would stop receiving feature and security updates. That date was informed after adding 18 months to Microsoft’s End of Life milestone for Windows 7, which was on January 14, 2020. Google is now adding six months to that deadline and extending Chrome’s support for Windows 7 until at least January 15, 2022. Given the current situation, the majority of companies around the world have asked their employees to work from home. Hence it is quite obvious that their IT support and network requirements have shifted towards maintaining a safe and secure remote working environment. Hence the companies might have postponed their planned migration to Windows 10. However, by delaying the upgrades, the companies may have increased the risks of threats to Windows 7 that will not be addressed by Microsoft.
