Google Chrome will stop working on some PCs for the next month. The March 89 release of Chrome 89 will bring some changes to the minimum requirements for access to the market-leading browser. And if your computer has a processor that’s stuck in the tooth for a long time, you may no longer be able to access Chrome.
As reported by MSPoweruser, a new policy document from the Chromium team has revealed that support for certain chipsets will be discontinued.
After the release of Chrome 89 on the stable channel on March 2, computers with x86 CPUs that do not support at least SSE3 will no longer be able to run the browser.
In practice, this change would affect processors prior to Intel Core 2 Duo such as the Intel Atom and Celeron M processors.
Most processors released since 2005 support SSE3. So, you must be using a PC that is over 15 years old to be affected by this change.
READ MORE: Google confirms big changes to Google Drive on Windows and Mac
Chrome will soon post a warning about this change in Chrome 87.
After Chrome 89 was released, anyone using a computer with a highlighted chipset will no longer be able to use the browser installer.
And the browser itself just crashes when you try to run Chrome on affected computers that already have the software installed.
It is believed that only Windows computers will be affected by this change, and a very small fraction of its users as well.
Android, ChromeOS and Mac devices are not affected.
In other Chrome news, users of the browser were recently notified of a popular extension.
The Great Suspender was a handy tool previously available on the Chrome Web Store and aimed at people who typically have many tabs open.
The extension would automatically suspend any tabs that users hadn’t looked at in a while.
However, as highlighted in a post on GitHub, the extension could have been infected with malware.
The GitHub post states: “The old maintainer apparently sold the extension to unknown parties who maliciously intended to exploit the users of this extension for advertising fraud, tracking, and more. In version 7.1.8 of the extension (released on. ) Webshop, but NOT for GitHub), arbitrary code was being executed by a remote server that was apparently used to perform a variety of tracking and scamming actions, and after Microsoft removed it from Edge for malware, version 7.1.9 was left without it Code Created: This is the code that has been running since November and it doesn’t seem to load the compromised script. However, the malicious maintainer is in control and can roll out an update at any time. Well, they could do it until Google put the extension off removed her store. “
The Great Suspender has since been removed from the Chrome Web Store.
This extension warning isn’t the only Chrome warning users have received recently. Google had to release an emergency update last week to fix a vulnerability that hackers were exploiting.
