Google extends Windows XP support for Chrome

Although Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows XP, after years of delays and absolute-last-extensions, Google has announced that it will continue to support the platform with its Chrome browser - at least until the end of the year.

Back in 2013, advertising giant and EC antitrust target Google announced that it would continue to support its Chrome browser build for Windows XP until at least April 2015 - a year after Microsoft pulled the plug on the operating system's long-running life-support machine. Now, April 2015 is here - and Google has decided to offer users still on the OS-that-would-not-die a further extension.

'We know that not everyone can easily switch to a newer operating system. Millions of people are still working on XP computers every day. We want those people to have the option to use a browser that’s up-to-date and as safe as possible on an unsupported operating system,' explained Mark Larson, director of engineering for Google's Chrome division, in the extension announcement. '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.'

This may, however prove Chrome for Windows XP's last hurrah: while Google's previous commitment included an 'at least' proviso, Larson's deadline has no such wiggle room - meaning that anyone still running Windows XP at the end of the year will find their Chrome version stagnating.