Google extends Chrome support for Windows 7 until 2022

Google has announced that its extending Chrome support for enterprises using Windows 7 until at least 15 January 2020.

Back in January, Google announced that it would stop supporting the browser on Windows 7 from 15 July 2021. However, in a post on the Google Cloud blog, the company has revealed that its extending support for an additional six months, with support now set to end in January 2022.

The company said it's decided to extend support due to the difficulties businesses have faced due to the remote working arrangements necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This year has presented a lot of challenges for organisations of all sizes," said Max Christoff, engineering director of Google Chrome. "Facing difficult business and technology decisions, supporting a changing work environment, and navigating uncertainty are among just a few of the issues IT leaders have faced over the course of 2020."

The decision has also been spurred by the fact that a significant proportion of businesses are still using the decade-old operating system. Although Microsoft stopped providing security updates for Windows 7 in January this year, Google's figures show that 21% of organisations using Chrome on Windows 7 are still working to migrate over to Windows 10.

"While the past few months served as a catalyst for technology investments and digital transformation initiatives for many organizations, for others, some planned IT projects may have had to take a back seat.

"Our hope is that this extension gives our enterprise customers the flexibility they need to continue supporting their workforce, while moving off of Windows 7 as their situation allows."

News of this six-month extension comes just days after Google debuted Chrome 87, which it claims "represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years". The company claims the update has the potential to reduce CPU usage by up to five times and to extend battery life by up to 1.25 hours.