Chrome will support Windows 7 for at least 18 months

[Vistapocalypse]

According to How Chrome is helping enterprises still using Windows 7,

Quote

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.

In the case of Windows XP, Chrome support was ultimately extended for a full 2 years after Microsoft's EoL date, ending in April 2016. (See Updates to Chrome platform Support. Also at that time, Chrome support for Windows Vista was terminated a full year before Microsoft's EoL date - a possibility that those running Windows 8/8.1 should perhaps beware of.) In all likelihood, Firefox will support Windows 7 longer than Chrome.

[WinClient5270]

As Windows 8/8.1 never caught on in the corporate world, I expect history to repeat itself. Not only in the case of Chrome, but I'm sure several other applications will drop support for Windows 7 and 8.x simultaneously, as with what happened back in the early-to-mid 2010s with Windows XP and Vista. There may be an outlier or two that does officially support 8.x but not 7 (there were actually several, where applications supported Vista+ but not XP), or there may be some programs that, despite officially "requiring" Windows 10, may continue to run on Windows 8.x anyway, but I wouldn't count on it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if I had to guess, Windows 8.x is more related to Windows 7 when it comes to APIs (at least on the desktop/win32 side of things, not UWP) so I'd say if something doesn't work with 7, it won't work with 8.x either unless it officially supports it.

3 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

Chrome support for Windows Vista was terminated a full year before Microsoft's EoL date

I would argue that Chrome support for Windows Vista was dropped even further back than that, with the release of Chrome 41 in March 2015, when Vista users were royally screwed over. This was the first version of Chromium/Chrome to lack a Windows Vista-exclusive build, when Vista users were simply thrown onto the XP version which caused a lot of Vista-exclusive APIs and features, most notably Windows Aero, to no longer be utilized. This was done apparently "due to lack of user feedback from Vista users", but I still believe they did it to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" so they wouldn't have to worry about supporting anything older than Windows 7. Still makes me furious to think about to this day.
As Vista is much more similar to Win7, delivering its version of Chrome to Vista users would have made much more sense and would have made everyone much happier, but alas...

[Vistapocalypse]

I quite agree. (In fact Avira's stated policy is to end support for Windows 7, 8.1 and practically everything else on November 1, 2022.) Of course some Windows 7 enthusiasts may regard Vista as the bathwater rather than the baby, thinking they dodged a bullet back then, and may feel the same way about Windows 8 - bringing sly grins to the faces Microsoft executives as they usher you up the gangplank to Windows 10, which they won't scuttle until practically everyone is on board - at which time a new version of Windows will no doubt be launched.

[i430VX]

On 1/12/2020 at 5:18 AM, Vistapocalypse said:

I quite agree. (In fact Avira's stated policy is to end support for Windows 7, 8.1 and practically everything else on November 1, 2022.)

Wow! It's a bit early to be deciding that sorta thing. But im sure other AVs will continue to service 7/8 for years after avira.

Edited January 14, 2020 by i430VX
clean quote

[Jody Thornton]

Now does this mean that the new MS Edge will only support Windows 7 for the same period of time?

 

[erpdude8]

38 minutes ago, Jody Thornton said:

Now does this mean that the new MS Edge will only support Windows 7 for the same period of time?

 

Neowin has answered that question for you yesterday, Jody
so the answer is yes

[Vistapocalypse]

29 minutes ago, Jody Thornton said:

Now does this mean that the new MS Edge will only support Windows 7 for the same period of time?

Good question. Others may not be aware that Microsoft will reportedly support Edge on Windows 7 for the same timeframe as Google - which is a remarkable departure from Microsoft's usual EoL practices. (Perhaps they finally realized that using Internet Explorer support as a tool to force OS upgrades was a mistake that contributed to Chrome's current dominance, and now they don't want Chrome to gain even more market share among Windows 7 diehards.)

[Vistapocalypse]

11 minutes ago, erpdude8 said:

so the answer is yes

You may have overlooked the word "only" in Jody's question., which is not actually answered in that article.

[Jody Thornton]

That's exactly the difference I meant.  Thanks Vistapocalypse

 

[Vistapocalypse]

In the absence of reliable news (and even the frequently cited Neowin article contains no Microsoft link), we can only speculate. My guess is that Edge will not support Windows 7 any longer than Chrome. Granted, if the Chinese can backport fairly recent Chromium versions to XP and Vista, then Microsoft should be capable of backporting future Chromium versions to Windows 7, or at least creating security patches for them - but why exactly would MS want to do that? If I am correct in thinking that MS wishes to block Chrome from gaining more market share, then their incentive ends as soon as Chrome support ends.

Edit: But if Chrome ends support for Windows 8.1 before Microsoft's EoL date, what will then become of Edge support for 8.1? Even Microsoft probably doesn't have an answer yet.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Vistapocalypse

[Jody Thornton]

Well, since I was having some file/save dialog problems with Firefox ESR on Windows 8, I moved over to Pale Moon 28.  I'll stay with it as long as the pages I use work fine.  Chromium Edge would have been my next stop.  After that - who knows.

 

[Vistapocalypse]

Found a link for Microsoft Edge Supported Operating Systems posted 01/12/2020, but it does not discuss eventual end of support:

Quote

** Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be supported by Microsoft Edge even after those operating systems go out of support. In order for IE mode to be supported on these operating systems the devices will need to have the Extended Security Updates for Windows 7. It is recommended to upgrade to a supported operating system as soon as possible...

Edit: The widely quoted Neowin article has been updated:

Quote

Update: Microsoft has updated it's statement to only say that it will support Edge on Windows 7, but not for how long.

Started a new thread about New Microsoft Edge Available.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Vistapocalypse

[Tripredacus]

Edge is not Chrome, they are both Chromium. Those using Win7 will just have to disable the update services before the end date, although I'm sure some Win7 specific Chromium builds will be available for years to come.