In yet another episode of “The ‘end-of-life’ is a suggestion, not a rule,” Google decided to stop supporting Google Chrome on Windows 7 and 8.x shortly after Microsoft gave the thumbs down to its legacy operating systems. However, the open source nature of Google Chrome (inherited from the Chromium project) has made it possible to restore that support in the form of Supermium, developed by Shane Fournier. The best part? Supermium not only provides an up-to-date Chromium browser for Windows 7 and 8.x, but it also extends compatibility to Windows Vista and XP.
Some users need to extend their hardware cycles because they have no alternative. Others want to resist Microsoft's planned obsolescence and keep using previous versions of Windows. There are also those who couldn't find a place in the Linux universe after trying several distributions. And finally, we have those who do it just for fun. The presence of an up-to-date browser largely defines how useful any computer is these days, and earlier we talked about MyPal, based on Firefox 68... but today it's the turn of a Chromium browser called Supermium.
Supermium: Chromium on XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8.x
The good news is that there is nothing radically different compared to other Chromium builds. Supermium installs normally on Windows Vista, 7 and 8.x, but XP needs a little extra attention (details below). Extension support is there, as is access to chrome://flags, and it incorporates commands inherited from other projects (for example, Ungoogled Chromium). The default configuration is quite good, though I recommend reviewing autocomplete and privacy settings.
What exactly happens with Windows XP? Well... the installer doesn't work. The video from Michael MJD that accompanies this article explains precisely what we need to do: Once the installer is downloaded, we explore its contents with 7-Zip (which works perfectly on XP), and extract to the same folder the file progwrp.dll and the subfolder chrome-bin. The next step is to copy progwrp.dll into chrome-bin, and finally load its executable.
The alternative to all this is to download the latest Supermium build, version 122.0.6261.85, which includes a new installer compatible with XP. However, users who decide to try this browser on Vista, 7 and 8.x will get a better experience with the 121-hotfix build. Judging by bug reports on GitHub, the feeling is that Supermium 122 needed a little more time in the oven, but even with those details, it's definitely worth exploring. Links below!
Official site and downloads: Click here Supermium on GitHub: Click here
