App to continue working on these, but no updates planned

Apr 14, 2016 07:43 GMT  ·  By

Google Chrome 50 has been released earlier today with no less than 20 security improvements, but as far as Windows and Mac users are concerned, the launch of the new version also marks an important milestone.

Starting today, Google Chrome no longer supports old versions of the two operating systems, and although the browser will continue to run on both just like before, no other updates and security patches are planned.

This means that should any vulnerabilities be discovered in the browser, users on the unsupported platforms will not get a patch and can thus become a target for cybercriminals developing exploits for these flaws.

Windows XP still running on 10 percent of PCs

Specifically, the unsupported OSes are Windows XP, as well as Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, with Google announcing in November 2015 that this decision was made because they were no longer actively supported by Microsoft and Apple.

“Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware,” Google explained. “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.”

For Windows XP users, browser choices are becoming more limited, as Google Chrome joins Internet Explorer on the list of apps no longer supporting the platform. Mozilla Firefox continues to offer support for Windows XP, and so does Opera, although it’s just a matter of time until their devs switch focus to newer platforms too.

Without a doubt, users still running such old platforms are recommended to upgrade as soon as possible because they could easily become vulnerable to attacks without security updates from Microsoft, Apple and third-party developers.