yoltboy01

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

Strangely, the nag message on Chrome Dev/Chromium 109 disappeared on Windows 8.1. Three days ago it started showing the same EOL message of XP/Vista for Windows 7/8.1 but today it was gone. I even reinstalled both browsers on Test machines and it showed nothing. The about:chrome Tab also says Up to Date and no warning message at all. Curious if this is a bug or intentionally

Hmm.. no surprise but moving Windows 7/8.1 to 102 ESR now is not a good idea in my opinion. They already run a newer version now and that would kinda be a downgrade now. Mozilla should definitly extend support till 114 ESR, so that Firefox remains supported till August-October 2024. It's highly unusual that they drop support on a regular release. It's either gonna be 102 ESR (which I highly doubt) or 114 ESR. So sad that they don't let any door open for Windows 7 and 8.1 users. Mozilla already has a low market share and they will loose about 15% more, if they discontinue support for 7/8.1. They should re-consider and wait till there are less than 5% left. They always want to keep up with Google, but this time I don't think they should. So 2023 is going to be a tough year for Windows versions lower than 10. Here is a quick summary: Google Chrome: EOL February 2023 Opera: EOL February 2023 Edge: EOL February 2023 Vivaldi: EOL February 2023 Brave: EOL February 2023 Firefox: EOL August 2023/August 2024

I‘m very curious what they will do to break compatibility with Windows 7 and 8.1. As I previously said in another post, I think that Mozilla will be more graceful when it comes to ending them. They ended support for XP/Vista 10 months after Google did and then pushed out security updates for another year. If v115 will be the next ESR in July, we will continue to receive Security Updates for at least another year. ESR is usually also supported for more than just 12 months (v78 had 16 months). Applying the same stats to Windows 7 would mean that Firefox should at least be supported till July - October 2024, which is still 2 years ahead. They could also support them for a longer period of time, because Mozilla already has a low usage rate compared to Chrome, so they may be not interested in loosing more users. However, that‘s just a dream scenario, they already limited some things to Windows 10 and 11 only like Firefox VPN

Google finally announced the End Of Life date for Windows 7 as well as Windows 8.1, which will be in February 2023, with the release of v110 of their Chrome browser Source: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/185534985/sunsetting-support-for-windows-7-8-1-in-early-2023?hl=en This will automatically also affect Google Chrome for Windows Vista Extended Kernel (although that might not be the biggest drama after all, since we Vista users can already be grateful that we got 61 versions higher than Chrome‘s initial EOL on Vista), Microsoft Edge for Windows 7/8.1, as well as many other Chrome forks like Opera. I hope Google only changes minor things, so that we can still run the browser, with a little tweaks here and there. If I think back to 2016, there were no ports for higher Chrome versions for Windows Vista, since we needed a kernel extension before we could run the necessary functions. What do you think? I wish Google would also offer an ESR channel, where W7/8.1 would continue to receive only security based updates for the next 12 months to come. I‘m using Firefox and I already know that Mozilla will probably merge W7/8.1 to the next ESR channel (v110-112?) too

After I installed Canary on my older 8.1 Laptop, it was reporting Windows 8.1 for Chrome 107. Haven't seen that Windows 10 text (yet)

I already prophesied this scenario a few months ago. Google already extended Chrome Support for Windows 7 for more than a year and since Windows 8.1 won't receive any ESU-offers, they have no need to extend support anymore. I really hope that we will be able to backport newer versions of Chrome to W7/8.1 without the need of an Extended Kernel (like Vista). I think Firefox will continue to support Windows 7 and 8.1 till at least 2024, since they will surely be moved to the ESR-chanel first, which is usually supported for more than a year. We already got a new ESR a few weeks ago, so the next one will probably be released in June/July 2023. If that specific version will be the last for 7/8 users, they will continue to receive security updates till October 2024. - MY guess only-

That's the last one official supported on Windows Vista

Is there any way in how to update OneDrive on Windows 8.1? The Explorer always shows the old OneDrive Icon, unlike Windows 7, who can use the latest one. I always get errors that I should use the Build-In App, if I wanna use a personal account

Windows 7 does not support these API‘s. The UWP Platform depends on many factors. So, although it‘s soo cool that he ported the Store back to Windows 7, unfortunately he won‘t be able to install anything with it. Windows 7 doesn‘t even have Microsoft Accounts build in, so you won‘t be able to log-in the Store for certain apps. You may be able to download programs like Firefox or Audacity, since they‘re .exe files. I‘m curious if the dev could port that back to Windows 8.1 as well, as I think 8.1 is way more capable of running a newer Store and also needs a newer Store, since the old one literally has nothing left

Which Spotify version is this? A newer one than 1.0.26?

I do have some experience with ESU on Windows 7, however the only difference between 7 and 8 is that Windows 8.1 is not eligable of Extended Security Updates itself. Other products of that NT-line are eligable (Server 2012/R2) of it. So, skip Windows 7 and look at back at Windows Vista - that's the situation we are dealing here with. Windows Vista also did not receive ESU, but Server 2008 SP2 did. I could install some of those for testing purposes on a Vista machine, however that was not easy. I needed an older version of an ESU-bypass tool, which was not easy to find anymore. After installing all of the needed patches, I could sideload Server 2008 SP2 ESU to Vista. Bbefore that I only got Error Codes. So, basically it is possible to do so with Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2 too, but I have to underline that I'm not recommending doing stuff, which one hasnt paid for. You can try on your own risk :)

There are ESU-bypass tools but they‘re obviously not legal, since people pay for these updates. It‘s your own choice

No, not exactly. Windows Thin PC (based on 7) will still receive ESU till October 2024, which means that there will still be some updates released and more than a year and a half updates after Windows 7 ESU ends. Windows Server 2008 R1 (based on Vista) is eligible for one additional year of ESU (till 2024), if it‘s used in Cloud (I think they call it Azure or something like that..) I won‘t give any links away but it‘s your choice if you wanna install an ESU-bypass tool or not but that‘s just a quick information regarding the support lifecycle

Another program that dropped support for Windows 7 as well as Windows 8.1 is the digital note taking app "Anki". If you use this app on your Windows 7/8 machine, version 2.1.49 was the last supported one. Starting with 2.1.50, only Windows 10/11 are supported. However, I tried unzipping any installing the latest one (2.1.54) on Windows 8.1, which strangly worked. You have to download the Qt5 installer, since the QT6 one will give you a missing plug-in error.