Microsoft made Edge 110 available to insiders in the Dev Channel earlier this week. Edge 110 is the first iteration of Microsoft’s browser to drop support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, as shown in the changelog. Microsoft has now officially announced the discontinuation of support for Edge on pre-Windows 10 versions in a blog post (consumer, enterprise, and server SKUs).
The last versions of Microsoft Edge and WebView2 Runtime (Evergreen and Fixed) that support Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 are 109. Also, Windows 10 or 11 are now necessary for WebView2 SDK versions 1.0.1519.0 and higher.
The week of January 12, 2023 will see the release of Edge and WebView 2 Runtime version 109 from the software behemoth. According to Microsoft, users of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 can keep using the browser and Runtime. These items won’t get any new features, security upgrades, or bug fixes, though.
The outdated consumer versions of Windows as well as Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2 are all subject to end of support. Microsoft will no longer maintain the Edge browser, but it will continue to support Internet Explorer 11 until it stops supporting those operating systems.
Microsoft is currently encouraging developers to stop supporting Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1. While making such a choice might not be simple, it is essential to keep customers safe and receive security updates, new features, and bug fixes. Google has already started bugging customers to update to a more recent version of Windows, and other developers will soon follow.
