Credit: Dreamstime
Google will continue to “fully support” Chrome on Windows 7 for a minimum of 18 months following the official end of support deadline from Microsoft on 14 January 2020.
Setting a new support deadline of at least 15 July 2021, the industry rival is making a pitch to enterprise customers still in the process of transitioning to the new Windows 10 operating system (OS).
“We have enterprises covered, even if they haven’t yet made the full move to Windows 10,” wrote Max Christoff, engineering director of Chrome at Google, via a company blog. “If you haven’t started your move to Windows 10 yet, or even if your organisation is mid-way through migration, you can still benefit from the enterprise capabilities of Chrome.”
After launching Windows 7 in 2009, Microsoft issued a commitment to provide 10 years of support for the OS, with technical assistance and software updates no longer available post 14 January 2020.
In response, Redmond is “strongly recommending” customers to upgrade to Windows 10, as outlined through a string of initiatives during the past 12 months, including push notifications and prompts.
While the vendor has made some exceptions for valued enterprise customers through “Extended Security Updates”, the majority of the market will at some point, be forced to make the transition.
“Running an OS outside of official support can leave organisations vulnerable to potential security threats,” Christoff advised. “On Windows 7, Chrome will continue to provide built-in security capabilities that help keep users safe while on the web."
Furthermore, Christoff said customers can work between Windows 7 or Windows 10, “picking up where they left off” across OS versions.
Through Chrome Browser Cloud Management, IT teams can receive browser insights and manage policies from one place spanning different Windows versions. Users can also manage Chrome for Mac, Linux and Chromebooks from the same console.
“If you’re like most enterprises, you’ve started the migration process and may already have a portion of your company now running on Windows 10,” Christoff said. “We understand the challenges IT teams face when migrating to a new OS. Migrations are tricky.
“IT teams want to make the move to the latest OS version quickly to take advantage of the latest security improvements and benefits, while limiting potential disruptions to user productivity. But the browser has become just as critical as the operating system for getting work done, especially when there’s major reliance on cloud and SaaS [software-as-a-service] apps.”
