Chrome users have 3 months to say goodbye to Windows 7 and 8.1

[trs96]

Support for Windows 8.1 ends January 10, 2023

We look at the upcoming demise of Windows 8.1, and why you should consider moving to a newer operating system.

www.malwarebytes.com

In early 2023, Chrome will officially end support for Windows 7 and 8.1 with the release of Chrome 110, which the company "tentatively" expects to happen on February 7. This means Chrome will continue to work on these platforms but will cease receiving critical updates and new features. And software that no longer gets updates is best uninstalled, as it poses a security risk.

Chrome is the most widely used web browser by far, with a market share of about 65%, which makes it a very tempting target for cybercriminals. Over the last few years it has suffered with a large number of critical vulnerabilities, with dozens of zero-days fixed. In just the last few months we've seen patches for a zero-day in July, a zero-day in August, and a zero-day in September, for example. The first line of defence against these problems is keeping the browser up to date and it helps enormously that Chrome updates itself.

When those automatic updates dry up early next year though, the risks of running an unsupported Chrome browser on an unsupported version of Windows will compound each month.

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[Jamesbond007]

The fact that Chrome updates itself with no easy means to disable the automatic update mechanism is one of the reasons why I don't use it myself.

I am using Firefox ESR (with the very useful NoScript addon), which provides a means to completely disable the automatic update mechanism using a registry key on Windows (or a special file to be placed in a specific location on MacOS). I have found that these browser updates often remove useful features (to me), and I want to have access to older versions. Firefox has a nice feature that enables multiple versions to be installed on the same OS, using different profiles.

And if the past is any indication, Firefox ESR will be supported for longer than Chrome on older operating systems. Firefox ESR 52.9.0 was the last version to support Windows XP and Vista, and it was released in June 2018, more than four years after the end of support for Windows XP. We have not heard from Mozilla about Firefox support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, and since Firefox ESR 102 (the current version) is supported on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (and also on MacOS Sierra / High Sierra / Mojave / Catalina by the way), this means that Firefox will work on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 for a while longer.

According to Mozilla's release calendar, Firefox ESR 102 will be supported until August 2023. Before that time I think we will know whether the next version of ESR (115) will still support Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. I am hoping it will, although I won't be surprised if Mozilla decides that it no longer want to support them by then.

 

[Nodarkthings]

I'm a long time Firefox ESR user myself (on MacOS) and I use it as my "safest browser" (+uBlock Origin and uMatrix addons) but I've been using (ungoogled) Chromium for a few years for fast browsing. Since the only build of Chromium for Mac dropped support for anything older than Big Sur one year ago, I switched to Brave and I'm really satisfied (I think I use it 70% of the time but some sites render better in Firefox — and I still prefer Firefox for everything needing increased safety).

Years ago, I had tried Chrome itself and was petrified when I saw what a grip it got on my system, installing all sorts of things everywhere: never again! (I too avoid auto-updates )

Until now, when Firefox ESR drops a MacOS version, it's the trigger for me to switch to a more recent one (hence my updating from 10.11 to 10.14 last year) — yes I know that it's baaaaaad not updating the OS in real time but I don't want to DL tenths of gigs every year, and anyway I would have had to change computer a long time ago if I had followed Apple's updates...

 

[Jamesbond007]

I am happy that Mozilla has made the decision to continue to support Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 with Firefox ESR 115, which will be supported until 2024 Q3 at the minimum :

https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/28/firefox-to-support-windows-7-and-8-systems-well-into-2024-at-least/

I will continue to avoid Chrome for as long as I can.