Officially, Microsoft will cut off support for Windows 7 on January 14th and that means the operating system will be deemed obsolete and undeserving of getting security patches and fixes going forward. However, the OS will remain functioning and users can still enjoy Google Chrome on it with the assurance of incoming updates.
That reads correctly. Google has no plans of withholding support for its browser users who opted to keep their digital existence on Windows 7. As far as Microsoft is concerned, the OS will be rendered a security risk a week from now but at least Chrome fans will be covered.
In reality, Google has also encouraged migrating to Windows 10 eventually but the search giant appears to understand that switching is not an easy decision for many. So to make life easier for these lot in the next 18 months, Chrome on Windows 7 will be kept stable and secure thanks to the planned regular deployment of program updates, according to 9to5Google.
"If you haven't started your move to Windows 10 yet, or even if your organization is midway through migration, you can still benefit from the enterprise capabilities of Chrome," the advisory from Google was reported as saying.
No doubt this is a piece of good news for the Windows 7 holdouts, which the report said are at over 27 percent of the total Windows OS population as of December 2019, who will be left with little choice on browsing tools while still with the officially discontinued OS.
Microsoft has already made clear that Internet Explorer on Windows 7 will be discontinued by next week. Soon enough, the OS will be totally isolated so the wise move is to make the jump on Windows 10 and there are a number of pathways to do so.
One, according to Extreme Tech, is to upgrade to the flagship Microsoft OS and this can be done free of cost coming from Windows 7.
"While Microsoft's free upgrade program technically ended in July 2016, the company never actually bothered to end it," the report noted.
In doing this, users can just download a copy of the latest Windows 10 version by way of what Microsoft labels as Media Installation Tool. It should be noted that during the installation process, users might be asked to key in the product serial. On this, they can use the same serial that came with the old Windows installation.
Another option is to simply buy a new PC with Windows 10 preinstalled, which in fact is the cheaper way over the long run with the added benefits of running a more stable and faster machine, obviously because of the modern components.
