Google Will Support Chrome On Windows 7 Until July 2021

Google has announced that it will continue providing Chrome support for Windows 7 beyond the Operating System’s end of life on January 14, 2020. The development is a much-needed reprieve to users who are yet to migrate to Windows 10 and are concerned about the cybersecurity risks of not migrating.

Microsoft had promised to keep supporting the Windows XP successor for 10 years from 2019. Withdrawal of support for Windows 7 means that technical assistance and software updates, including security patches, will no longer be available for the OS.

Traditionally, Microsoft provides regular security updates to mitigate specific threats to PCs and information technology (IT) systems. On September 10, 2019, the software-maker released the KB4516033 security-only patch to protect 32-Bit (x86) versions of Windows against vulnerabilities known as microarchitectural data sampling. Such Windows 7 security updates won’t be available for free for much longer, and that’s part of the issues Google is trying to resolve with the Chrome browser.

You can keep using Chrome on Windows 7 safely until 2021

Chrome support for the OS will benefit business users, according to Max Christoff, Engineering Director, Chrome.

We have enterprises covered, even if they haven’t yet made the full move to Windows 10. We will continue to fully support Chrome on Windows 7 for a minimum of 18 months from Microsoft’s End of Life date, until at least July 15, 2021.

With Chrome, enterprises that are still on Windows 7 will be able to address numerous security threats, especially when interacting with web-based applications. The browser includes a range of internet-safety features, such as anti-phishing and advanced password protection.

Site isolation is also a key cybersecurity function that Google promises to deliver with extended Chrome support for Windows 7. The extra layer of protection makes it more difficult for suspicious websites to access or steal data from enterprise applications or sites.

Also, users can look forward to automatic Chrome security updates and proactive protection to secure their cloud-hosted systems. If there’s a significant number of enterprise users on Windows 7 by July 15, 2021, Google might extend Chrome‘s support for the OS beyond this date.