Microsoft Pushes Edge to Windows 7 and 8.1
- Paul Thurrott
- Jun 19, 2020
-
24
Windows 10 users aren’t the only ones getting Microsoft Edge from Windows Update: Now it’s heading out to those running Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 and Windows 8.1 as well.
“This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update,” Microsoft’s KB4567409 description notes. “Windows 7 support ended on January 14, 2020. Although Microsoft Edge helps keep your device helps secure on the web, your device may still be vulnerable to security risks. We recommend that you move to a supported operating system.”
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
Once installed, you’ll find a new Microsoft Edge icon pinned to your taskbar, but Edge will not replace Internet Explorer. (On Windows 10, the new Edge replaces legacy Edge.) It also won’t change your default browser, so if you want to switch to Edge—and you do—you’ll need to make that change manually.
This update won’t be delivered to PCs that are running Windows Enterprise or are managed by Active Directory or Azure Active Directory, Microsoft notes.
And while Windows 8.1 doesn’t require any prerequisites to get this install, those on Windows 7 SP1 will also need two previous updates, KB4474419 and KB4490628. The former is a Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2) related to code signing and KB4490628 is a servicing stack update (SSU).