yoltboy01

Off Topic: I just received an update on Office 365 on my Windows 8.1 machine and it's now running on Build 2302. I think we can assume that this will be the last feature drop for Windows 8.1, as Office Insider is already grayed out since 2301. I already received a few errors from the Installer when I tried installing it on a Clean 8.1 machine. They disappeared after updating the machine. Since there will be no Security Updates, like Windows 7 receives with 2002, I will try to look if newer versions (2303+) can be ported back to 8.1 in near future

Would be very pathetic from their side, since it‘s their own software. If they read our forums to find their mistakes, they‘re not good developers. Nonetheless, they can feel free to block that hack if they want to. There are many smart brains around here, like @win32 or you, who achieved to backport newer software to older OS

As Opera is not my main browser, I am not really surprised or shocked. I‘m still optimistic and stick to their words. I will wait and see if they really fix compatibility and if not, then I will „bombard“ them with e-mails

Yeah I tried v96 on 8.1 and it immediately crashes. With that sandbox hack it opens, gives an error and closes again

An Opera-developer made an announcement regarding the EOL of Windows 7/8.1. Quote: Hey, we are aware that Chrome is dropping support for Windows 7 and 8 but we wanted to keeping those platforms updated as long as it wouldn't require lot of additional maintenance from our side. We will look into this as it didn't show up on our earlier tests before release. For now we logged some GPU related crash on Windows 8 which is logged under DNA-104227 So, what they basically say is that even tho Chromium based browsers, like Edge and Chrome, dropped support for them, they will continue to port back newer Opera versions to Windows 7/8/8.1, as long as it doesn‘t reach a point, where they would have to put too much effort into it

Tried it out and it works on Chromium

I'll give it a try. Does it work on Spotify?

Great work!

Yeah I remember. I think they basically ignore Windows 8, since they didn't break compatibility. Right now the --no-sandbox method still works but they could introduce Windows 10+ dll's anytime

imgur.com/UlGhgwC

The current version of Chromium 111 now shows the title bar of Windows 10 on Windows 8.1, just like other apps (e.g. Spotify). Could be an indicator that compatibility with 8.1 will also be broken in near future (hopefully not too near) or, as I said earlier, that they really dont care about Windows 8 (possible scenario)

Yeah that was already a very possible scenario years ago, since Windows 8 and 8.1 usage isn‘t as high as Windows 7. That‘s also the reason why they don‘t offer ESU for 8.1 devices. However, 8.1 is closer to 10 than 7, which makes some things easier to backport to 8.1 than to 7, just like it was the case with XP and Vista. Vista is obviously way more identical to 7 than XP, which made some things much easier

I think it was quite possible to get 2020 versions of Office 365 working on Windows 7, but those newer versions won‘t run on it (dll/api missing)

Ironically, to what was mentioned by Google and other users, Chromium has dropped support for Windows 7 and also updated their website, removing Windows 7 from their System Requirements list - BUT - left Windows 8 standing on that list. They also added Windows 11 now, so I‘m curious about why they didn‘t remove 8. They definitely acknowledged the —no-sandbox hack but maybe they don‘t care so much, until they really add api’s and dll‘s that will break compatibility with 8 too. Source: https://chromium.woolyss.com/download/de/

I just saw that Office v2301 is the last one for Windows 8.1 The Office Insider Button is grayed out just like in Windows 7, with the same nag message

As of now, the freshly released first Chromium 111 Build seems to work on Windows 8.1 with the —no-sandbox hack as well.

I would love to see a backport of some Windows 10 Apps for Windows 8.1, but even that will surely not happen (anytime soon). On Windows 8.1 even Netflix and Deezer won't work anymore, since they use IE11 to connect to their servers. If there was only a solution to switch it to Edge like Windows 10..

Sure you can. There are people, who still use Windows XP and Vista. First, I want to clarify that people come here, in order to help reviving these older operating systems. It‘s in no ones interest to treat them like „abandoned ware“ here. There are masterminds like @win32, who put so much effort into developing Kernels for older systems, so that we can run our favorite OS, no matter how old it is, nowadays. In my opinion, people who do nothing but repeat what the richy rich companies like M$ or Google say and oppositely try to make everyone not use those OS, have nothing to do here. No logic input, only helpless statements. If we wanted to hear „give up, move to Windows 10 everyone“, we wouldn‘t come here! There are tough times waiting for us now. As far as I know, Chrome 109 is really the last one for Windows 7 and no methods exist to run newer ones. I am not using Windows 7, but 8.1, which can indeed run Chrome 110. It took @win32 also a lot of effort to develop an Extended Kernel for Windows Vista, which made us run newer Chrome versions on it. You have to wait for an extended Kernel for Windows 7 as well and until then, I would simply use Firefox (or Chrome till February 2023). As far as Security Updates, you already mentioned PosReady 7

Doesn‘t apply to Windows 8.1. Chromium AND Chrome 110 work fine - updating it daily and I‘m definitely not crying over the no-sandbox hack. Happily taking those intense risks you mentioned. Why should they be removed from the Main section on MSFN? I don‘t think that‘s in anyones interest. Most of the users come here for Windows 7 and 8.1. At least this community here doesn‘t treat them like Legacy, vintage Products. Unnecessary idea

Although I don‘t think that Microsoft will extend the ESU Program for Windows 7 or make one for Windows 8.1, you could bypass ESU (not explaining how) and install PosReady 7 Updates on Windows 7 till October 2024 (similar to XP and PosReady 2009) and Server 2012 R2 ESU Updates on Windows 8.1 till October 2026. Due to legal reasons I‘m not recommending this, only mentioning its existence. EVEN Windows Vista AND Internet Explorer 9 (which many forget) can still receive Updates till 01/2023, by installing Server 2008 SP2 ESU on it. However, as my predecessor already said: Does Internet Explorer 9 even count as a liable browser in 2022? It can‘t even load basic websites now, so that extending it with further Security Updates was kind of unnecessary.

Well who knows? I have a bad gut feeling. This whole situation reminds me of when Windows XP and Vista were discontinued by Google. While Chrome 49 was really the last one to work on XP, v50 could still be installed and ran on Vista, without any issues. If I am not wrong, you could also install Chrome 51, but that's when they slowly started to also break compatibility with Vista. Chrome 52 would no longer install on Vista and gave the typcial errors, when you tried to launch new Chrome versions on Vanilla Vista. I mean they could also break compatibility with Windows 8.1 at any time right now, but I think it will definitly not be with newer builds of v110 or 111. They are now free to introduce dll's from Windows 10+ at any time. The only questions is how other browsers will react to this: Logically, other Chromium based browsers must also stop supporting Windows 7 and 8.1 after they move on from Chromium v109 to 110, but there are some browsers, like Maxthon, who are based on new Chromium versions, but can be run on older systems. I think Maxthon 5.x was on Chromium version 7x/8x and still supported Windows XP and Vista, whereas the last Yandex Version for Windows Vista was v17.4.1.1026, which was based on Chromium 57 or Slimjet 12.0.15, which was based on Chromium 53. I really have no clue how they managed to make these Chromium versions run on those older systems (no judgement pls), but theoretically those companies could also support Windows 7 and 8.1 for longer if they wanted or? Curious to know what you guys think. I was just wondering, after I scrolled through the list of Last Versions of Software for Windows Vista and saw some entries that surprised me

No, 109 is the last one that works on Windows 7. They introduced dll‘s that are only available in Windows 8+, but they also broke compatibility with Windows 8. If you try installing Chromium on Win8/8.1, the browser will start and then immediately close again. However, using —no-sandbox allows you to run the latest Chromium (110.5441) on Windows 8.1. I hope they will not break that one too.

Thanks for checking it win32. You already gave your best with Vista's extended kernel (for which I'm still grateful till this day) and I hope that you will be able to make Chrome run again on Windows 7 after it's final release. Let's also hope that they won't make it harder for Windows 7. Would these functions be easy to add on Vista's extended kernel as well or would you say that we might have to say goodbye to Chrome on Vista, until you manage to add them there too?

I will basically ignore that this topic was pulled into another topic throughout this long conversation and will now come back to the origins of why I created it: I just updated Chromium on my Windows 8.1 Laptop and v110 seems to work fine, although the last official version for 7/8.1 will be v109. I have no clue, if the mini-installer will still install that version on Windows 7/8.1, but I just unpacked the latest chromium-zip package and ran it. This could and will possibly change in the future. If I think back to Windows Vista, Chrome 50 could still be installed manually, without any issues and Chromium went up till v51, without any errors. So, we might be able to run v110 and some newer ones unofficially, before they break the support completely, by adding W10/11 specific Api‘s into the game. [Off topic: I tried installing the latest HP Easy Start for configuring my printer and HP no longer supports 7/8.1 either. However, after unpacking the installer and running it manually, it worked. No dll/api issues. So, some programs seem to not break compatibility in their core, they just show off a warn message. Let‘s hope for some other programs to be like that in the future]

I‘m sorry guys but I‘m very confused right now. This topic was intended for the future of Chrome on Windows 7 and possibilities of running newer versions soon but I quite don‘t get what you are discussing here right now. It has nothing to do with the upcoming EOL