Google Will Support Chrome for Win XP Until 2015

Microsoft will cut off support for Windows XP in April 2014, but Google will keep the XP version of Chrome updated for another year.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Mark Larson, director of engineering and superintendent of public safety for Google Chrome, said that Chrome support for XP users won’t end until April 2015. That means Chrome XP users will continue to receive updates and patches to keep the browser secure. As Larson said, malware often sneaks its way onto computers through holes in unpatched browsers.

Microsoft’s pulling of the XP plug next April means that the now 12-year-old operating system and its built-in applications, such as Internet Explorer, will no longer receive updates or security patches. Microsoft has been urging its users to migrate to Windows 7 for sometime now. But many organizations are still stuck on XP and probably will remain so for the foreseeable future.

“Our goal is to support Chrome for XP users during this transition process,” Larson said. “Most importantly, Chrome on XP will still be automatically updated with the latest security fixes to protect against malware and phishing attacks.”