Google Chrome Extends Support For Windows Vista

Just when you thought we were getting close to the end of software support for the most notorious version of Windows, it's dashed! Google has announced "the end of software support" for Windows Vista and Windows XP. That'd be super great, except for the fact that they'd already announced the end of software support for those operating systems before. Before, Google suggested that they'd be ending Chrome web browser support for Windows XP and Windows Vista this December. Now they've done (another) extension.

Google's most recent announcement (made today) suggests that they'll be ending Chrome support for Windows XP, Vista, and the Apple operating system versions Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. They're doing this because the platforms are "no longer actively supported by Microsoft and Apple." The end of support will begin in April of the year 2016.

Once support is ended, you'll still be able to run Chrome on your old computer's OS. It'll be fine, mostly. But you SHOULDN'T DO IT!

You shouldn't continue to run that software because at the end of software support, Google no longer distributes updates or security fixes. If a hacker were to find a way to utilize Chrome as it exists on its last update, you'd be up a creek without a paddle.

Interestingly, Google announced this extension all the way back in mid-October under the headline "Extending Chrome support for XP users until April 2015." Today's headline from Google is titled "Updates to Chrome platform support."

As Google's Marc Pawliger, Director of Engineering and Early Notifier suggests, "Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware."

And if you're still using Windows Vista, may god have mercy on your soul one way or the other. Goodness gracious you.