Google releases Chrome 110, parts ways with Windows 7

[Alfonso Maruccia]

What just happened? Windows 7 was initially released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and is no longer officially supported by Microsoft. And now, one of the most popular operating systems for PC is losing support from yet another extremely popular application - Google Chrome.

Released on February 7, Chrome 110 is the first version of the most popular web browser that won't run on Windows 7. Google is following Microsoft's lead in finally abandoning the old operating system for good, with Chrome now requiring Windows 10 at minimum. It's not the only change brought by the update but it certainly is the most outstanding one, especially for the many million of users still running the ancient OS.

Chrome 110 has been promoted to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux, where the update will be rolled out over the coming days and weeks. Chrome 110 includes several changes and improvements, especially on the security front where Chromium developers fixed at least 15 security bugs ranging from a "high" (3) to "low" severity rating.

The fixed bugs were discovered in the JavaScript V8 engine, WebRTC communications, GPU utilization, and elsewhere. As usual, Google is thanking all the security researchers that worked with the company during the development cycle to make the stable release of Chrome a bit safer that before.

Chrome 110 also includes customizable network error pages and the option to use biometric authentication "on supported computers" (meaning, where biometric hardware is actually present) while managing passwords with the browser's own Password Manager. Chrome 110 is also the first version to support Nvidia's RTX Video Super Resolution, a proprietary technology to easily upscale video feeds on GeForce RTX cards.

Other changes include an automatic translation setting for selected languages, manual translation support on iOS, and a simpler process for password checks. Chrome desktop users can now get a more secure experience by enabling support for the system's Screen Lock ID method if biometric hardware isn't available.

Starting with Chrome 110, users still running Windows 7, Windows 8.x and Windows Server 2012/R2 will have three choices. They can continue to use an older version of the browser which is still compatible with the aforementioned OSes or switch to a different browser like Firefox (Mozilla developers are also debating how to phase out Windows 7 support right now.) The third choice, and likely the best one, would be to install a newer version of Windows or upgrade your PC if your current hardware doesn't support a newer OS.

Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 until at least 2025.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97551-google-releases-chrome-110-parts-ways-windows-7.html

 

[amghwk]

Is there a genuine reason that a newer version of a software can't support an older OS, or it's just being lazy to stop offering solutions to those still using older OSs and/or collude with MS to promote people move to the newer OSs?

 

[brucek]

What specifically was added to the code in Chrome 110 that can't work on Windows 7?

Or is the only incompatible part the part that goes out of its way to check if its on Win 7, and then disables itself.

Or is it that it may well work just fine but Google is no longer spending any testing time to make sure, and isn't making any promises one way or the other.

 

[Jack Bauer92]

What specifically was added to the code in Chrome 110 that can't work on Windows 7?

Or is the only incompatible part the part that goes out of its way to check if its on Win 7, and then disables itself.

Or is it that it may well work just fine but Google is no longer spending any testing time to make sure, and isn't making any promises one way or the other.

They just don't want to spend any recourse that they ''don't have to'' . But can people still use Chromium then ?

 

[NikoBB]

Nasty chrome, the worst browser on the planet in terms of text quality, which I easily proved a long time ago - https://www.techspot.com/community/...e-for-chrome-on-windows-7.277605/post-1993340

Google intentionally spoils the eyesight of all people on the planet, because they don’t care about the x86 market - their main monetization platform is the smartphone market, and there are no screens left with ppi less than 300. For this reason, the greyscale crooked anti-aliasing of fonts is simply imperceptible there - a very small pixel. On x86, more than 90% of the population sits on screens with ppi below 150, but you need at least 220+ for eliminate this bad unswitchable anti-aliasing from Chrome. For this reason, everyone who looks at screens with ppi below 220 spoils their eyesight in Chrome, because this hazy anti-aliasing is not disabled there. Some people wrote to me that in Linux this is possible with one key, but on Windows this key is ignored by Chrome.

Therefore, you have 2 choices - either buy a screen with ppi more than 220, and preferably from 290 (only 4k panels for 15.6-18") or not read anything in Chrome, switch to Firefox, because. as I showed on the link - there with one key in the settings you can generally turn off anti-aliasing and the text will be as sharp as possible.

And about the termination of support - it's all immoral and designed to squeeze people out of the old hardware, tk. sales of laptops and PCs are plummeting. Through the fault of Intel and AMD, and despite the fact that AMD itself admitted that it intends to provoke a shortage of processors in order to inflate prices.

Unfortunately, we don't have much choice to get away from Windows 10/11 trojan and spyware. Crooked Linux is never an option. It's still worse there, especially for the average layman.

Let me also remind you that the Pentagon and a number of governments continue to receive quietly, for a fee, security patches and updates for Windows 7-8.1 and for Chrome from Google. Therefore, on the part of both the authorities and M$ it is immoral not to post these updates, because they are paid for by your people taxes. Until the population forces M$/your authorities to post updates in court, nothing will change for the better.

 

[3volv3d]

It's chrome, it's Google, it's no loss to a a windows 7 user.

The biggest issue for a windows 7 user is its end of life, forcing users to use dirty win10/11 or move to Linux. RiP

 

[netman]

Sounds like a conspiracy between Microsoft and Google...!

 

[DaveBG]

Bye bye chrome, you wont be missed!

 

[Jarn321]

Tbh I now use firefox instead of chrome and I kinda like Firefox now, this also fixes my issues with choosing a mobile browser for my android/colorOS phone.

 

[rsmith222]

Sounds like a conspiracy between Microsoft and Google...!

It sounds like typical software development teams. They only care about the here and now, and the near future.

The lack of respect for users when it comes to UI design consistency is particularly telling in that regard.