In many aspects, Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser improved upon the first non-Chromium iterations of Edge, including support for Windows 7 and 8. However, the end is near. According to a statement from Microsoft, Edge support for Windows 7 and 8 will expire in mid-January 2023.
That’s around the same time the operating systems stop receiving regular security upgrades. Windows 7 and 8 support for Microsoft Edge Webview2, which can leverage Edge’s rendering engine to embed web pages in non-Edge apps, comes to an end as well.
Windows 7 and 8
The end-of-support date for the browser coincides with the conclusion of Windows 7 and 8 on January 10. Google will cease support for the operating systems with the release of Chrome v110.
Given that the underlying Chromium engine of Edge and Chrome is open source, Microsoft could keep supporting Edge in older Windows versions if it wanted to. However, the company is using Google’s end-of-support dates to justify the end of Edge.
Microsoft Edge lives on
Those of you that still use Windows 7 may have noticed that the operating system has stopped getting security updates. Most users report that the last time they got general-purpose security updates was sometime last year, about a decade after the operating system’s release.
Due to the popularity of Windows 7 among businesses, Microsoft decided to continue offering optional paid support for an additional three years. These updates will be discontinued as well, with a similar program on offer for the substantially less popular Windows 8, which is about a decade old.
Edge will continue running on Windows 11 and later releases of Windows 10, as well as supported versions of Android, iOS, Linux, and macOS.
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