Google stated “Today, we’re announcing the end of Chrome’s support for Windows XP, as well as Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, since these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft and Apple. Starting April 2016, Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes. If you are still on one of these unsupported platforms, we encourage you to move to a newer operating system to ensure that you continue to receive the latest Chrome versions and features.” Marc Pawliger, Google Chrome director of engineering points out in today’s announcement, “such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware.” The move is said to encourage users to move off operating systems that are no longer actively supported by Apple of Microsoft. “Starting April 2016, Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes,” he added. “If you are still on one of these unsupported platforms, we encourage you to move to a newer operating system.” Earlier last year, Microsoft had slashed support for Windows XP in April 2014. That meant the company no longer provides security patches, bug fixes, or other updates to XP users. As such, XP users are more vulnerable to security threats, including ones that target the browser. By the time Chrome support ends in April 2016, it will be almost two years since Microsoft finally pulled the plug on XP support. The mainstream support from Microsoft for Vista ended in 2012, with extended support set to expire in April 2017. For those users who wish to remain on Windows XP, supported major browser choices will be reduced to Mozilla Firefox and Opera. According to Net Market Share, the good news for Windows XP is that they are now getting closer to 12 percent of global market share, which is a larger marketshare than the 8 percent claimed by Windows 10. However, Vista has never quite caught on, as it is down to under 2 percent. In June, the US Navy signed a support deal in-excess of $9 million with Microsoft that will see Redmond provide software patches and critical hotfixes for Windows XP, Exchange 2003, Office 2003, and Server 2003, for a maximum of three years. While Google would likely prefer their users to move on to Chromebooks for Chrome needs, it might be safe to say, the company would prefer users to upgrade to Windows 7, 8, or 10 soon.
