And the browser seems to work just fine on the 2009 OS

Apr 10, 2019 08:03 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft rolled out the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge earlier this week as a preview build exclusive to Windows 10.

The company promised to ship more versions in the coming months, including for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, both of which should run the browser just fine thanks to the transition to Chromium.

And while the first preview builds are available only for Windows 10, they can be installed on Windows 7 just fine, as discovered recently by BP.

In other words, what Microsoft does is just block Windows 7 and 8.1 users from downloading the browser from the official links. However, once you bypass this restriction and get the installer, you should be able to install Microsoft Edge on Windows 7, and presumably on Windows 8.1, just fine.

Only 64-bit devices supported

There are several ways to get around Microsoft’s limitation and download the browser, and one of them is to simply change the user agent in your browser. Another one is to get the application from a different source, so for example you can download Microsoft Edge from Softpedia for a smooth install even on older versions of Windows.

Microsoft hasn’t provided an ETA as to when the Chromium Edge would go live for other versions of Windows, but the plan is to make the browser available cross-platform.

The transition to Chromium allows Microsoft to release its browser not only on Windows, but also on other platforms, and the company has already confirmed that a macOS version is on its way. A Linux sibling of Microsoft Edge is yet to be confirmed, but given that the Chromium engine also supports this platform, there’s no doubt that at some point in the future Microsoft would look into this project.

For now, you can try out Microsoft Edge using the steps mentioned above, but keep in mind that at this point, only 64-bit devices are supported.