Chrome gives up on Windows XP as Google says bye-bye to antiquated OS

Google Chrome

Google Chrome 50 has been released, and with the browser reaching its half-century in terms of version numbers, Google has finally done away with support for Windows XP, as well as Windows Vista and older versions of OS X.

So now if you're running Windows XP, you'll be stuck on the previous version of Chrome – and while that will still work, it will no longer receive any updates, and thus will slowly but surely fall decidedly behind the times (and it won't be patched up with security updates).

Even though support for Windows XP itself ended just over two years ago now, Microsoft's outdated software still remains the third most-used desktop OS, with an 11% market share (behind Windows 7 and Windows 10).

Yes, there are still more people using Windows XP than Windows 8.1, and there's a good chance that plenty of those holdouts also make use of the Chrome browser. Obviously this curtailing of support from Google is another blow to them.

Mavericks or better

On the Mac front, Chrome won't be supported for anyone running versions of OS X older than Mavericks (so those still using Mountain Lion, version 10.8, or older are now out of luck).

Of course, Chrome 50 brought some new bits with it including tweaked push notification payloads, with the new system now allowing websites to be able to tell when you've closed a notification on one device, so you don't get the same thing coming through on your other devices.

There were also no less than 20 security fixes implemented by the Chrome team – security fixes which those on Windows XP won't get, and of course that number will only multiply going forward.

Via: The Inquirer

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

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