Google will update Chrome for Windows XP through 2015, beyond Microsoft’s …

Microsoft may be ending Windows XP support in just six months, but Google wants to breath just a little more life into the old OS. Google announced today that it’ll be continuing support for Chrome on Windows XP through at least April 2015 — a full year after Microsoft stops issuing security patches on XP. As Google notes, the browser is a major point-of-attack for malware, and by using an updated browser, XP users might be able to keep their systems safe for just a little while longer.

Windows XP is still exceedingly popular

Though XP is over a decade old, the metrics firm Net Applications pegs it as one of the most popular operating systems around today, second only to Windows 7. For Google, the move could help get businesses on board with using Chrome, as many begin or try to finish a prolonged upgrade of their computers to Windows 7, which still seems to be the go-to operating system for business machines.

Google also hasn’t been shy about its attempts to use the Chrome browser as a Trojan horse for Chrome OS. It’s begun building Chrome OS right into Windows 8, and while it hasn’t attempted that anywhere else just yet, creating an insulated Chrome-only environment could further prolong the life of an XP machine — should Google choose to expand the feature. But continuing support is hardly just a matter of making a name for itself on XP: with so many people still using it, there’s a good chance that Google would be leaving plenty of existing Chrome users out to dry if it left the OS alongside Microsoft.

Article source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/16/4844466/google-continuing-chrome-updates-windows-xp-through-april-2015

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