No one has seen that development coming. After announcing the end of support for its Firefox web browser for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 starting in February 2026, Mozilla seems to have had a change of heart.
Now, the organization says that it is extending support once again. The information has been published on its What Train Is It Now website, which lists the latest and upcoming Firefox releases.
There, Mozilla writes:
We have decided to extend support to ESR 115 only on Windows 7-8.1 and macOS 10.12-10.14 up to August 2026. We will re-evaluate this decision in July 2026 and announce any updates on ESR 115’s end-of-life then.
Support for Firefox on Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and the macOS versions 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14, is guaranteed until at least August 2026. At least? Yes, as Mozilla may extend support again. In either way, the organization will make an announcement in July 2026 regarding the web browser’s support on the older operating systems.
Firefox 115.x users on these operating systems should receive browser updates, only security fixes and critical bug fixes, as usually via the integrated updating system.
The extension gives users on these old systems access to one of the major browsers, as the other major browser makers, including Google and Microsoft, have stopped supporting the older operating systems for a long time already.
Security updates are guaranteed for another six months at the very least. Good move by Mozilla.
Great news. I was about to consider alternate browsers that support Windows 7 (R3dfox, LibreWolf) and will postpone that heavy intellectual decision until at least July, likely August of this year as it seems. Good. Will allow brains to concentrate on Metaphysics of the after-life, not specifically related to Firefox 🙂
Firefox ESR 140.15 and Firefox 115.40
Make it happen Mozilla.
Anyway, I am already using Redfox (based on Firefox) and Supermium (based on Chromium) on a Windows 7 installation.