Mozilla extends Firefox support for Windows 7, 8.1, and older macOS until March 2025

Released at: Sep 10, 2024

Mozilla is extending support for Mozilla Firefox on older, unsupported operating systems, including Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and macOS 10.12-10.14, until March 2025. Firefox 115 ESR, the latest version compatible with these older Windows versions, will continue receiving updates until April 1, 2025. Version 115.21 ESR is scheduled for release on March 4, 2024, providing users with at least seven more months of support from that date.

Initially, Mozilla planned to end support for Windows 7-8.1 in September 2024 but revised the timeline. The organization now offers two ESR (Extended Support Release) versions: Firefox 115 for unsupported operating systems and Firefox 128 for Windows 10 and newer. The decision to drop Windows 7 support from Firefox 116 onwards was made to streamline the code base and reduce the maintenance burden of outdated libraries.

The extension is driven by the substantial number of Firefox users still on Windows 7, justifying continued support despite the increasing challenge of backporting security fixes due to code divergence. Mozilla engineers have indicated that more official communications regarding this extended support will be provided soon.