Windows XP refuses to die, Google Chrome helps keep it on life support

By Kris Wouk April 17, 2015

windows xp still os for business eastern europe laptop — Edhar/Shutterstock

In a way, you’ve got to give it to Windows XP. The operating system launched in 2001, and Microsoft only officially stopped supporting it just over a year ago. Even now, there are those who continue to use it, whether by choice or not.

Of course, running a nearly 15 year old, insecure operating system is generally a very bad idea. Google, as the maker of one of the most widely used browsers in the world, is very well aware of that. As a result, the company has decided to continue to provide security updates for its browser on Windows XP until the end of 2015, and possibly beyond. This is an extension of the company’s earlier commitment, made in October of 2013, to support XP until April 2015. It’d been assumed Google would quietly end support by that deadline, but it seems there’s still some love left for XP.

“We know that not everyone can easily switch to a newer operating system. Millions of people are still working on XP computers every day,” Mark Larson, director of engineering for Google Chrome said in the blog post announcing the continued support. “We previously announced that we’d keep supporting Chrome on Windows XP through ‘at least’ April 2015. It’s April 2015 now, and we’re extending that commitment. We will continue to provide regular updates and security patches to Chrome on XP through the end of 2015.”

If you’re one of the surprisingly large amount of people still using Windows XP, it’s likely due to a need to use hardware or software that doesn’t work on newer versions of the OS. If that is the case, and you need a browser that will see you through 2016 and later, it might be worth downloading Firefox, as Mozilla has no plans to discontinue support for Windows XP.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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