When Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 officially for most users in 2023, it soon thereafter stopped supporting its browser on the operating system. Other companies, including Google, pulled support as well.
Mozilla did not. The organization’s initial plan was to continue supporting Windows 7 with Firefox’s extended support release 115 until that release would run out of support. Mozilla announced an extension in late 2024, so that support was guaranteed until March 2025.
Today, Mozilla announced another extension.
In short:
- Firefox 115 ESR remains supported until September 2025.
- Users who still run it will continue to receive security updates until at least September 2025.
Note: Windows 7 is not the only operating system that is getting an extension. The same applies to Windows 8.1 and macOS 10.12 to 10.14.
The last Firefox ESR version for Windows 7 will be Firefox ESR 115.27 according to the new release schedule. Firefox ESR 128 continues to be supported for newer operating systems as well.
Mozilla’s announcement on the official What Train Is It Now website confirms the decision. The organization plans to evaluate the September 2025 end of support date in August 2025. This could mean that there will be another support extension
Windows 7 still widely used
When you look at the distribution of Windows systems on Statcounter, you will notice that Windows 7 continues to cling to about 2.x percent, even two years after its support ended.
With hundreds of millions of Windows devices, that is still a sizeable number of systems that still run the operating system. Statcounter records hits to websites and uses the data for its statistics. There could be even more Windows 7 systems, those that are not connected to the Internet anymore.
Closing Words
You could say that Mozilla needs these users, as Firefox’s usership has been declining for a long time. There may be some truth to that. For Windows 7 users who use Firefox, it does not really matter why Mozilla is extending support again. They can continue to use a browser that remains supported and should work on most websites.
Being based on Firefox 115 means that it lacks some of the advancements made in browser technology since its introduction back in July of 2023.
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