I do not understand…other browsers still support Windows 7. I like Brave …ALOT! If I ever lose the copy on my hard drive, I am SCREWED! What i m suppose to replace it with …google? (F**K NO!!) Brave easily handles programs that causes problems in Firefox. NO, I do NOT want to upgrade to Wind-BLOWS 10 (or 11). They RUINED 10, and made it UNUSABLE. I guess that I will have to start looking for a replacement program… DAMN you F-ing A-holes.
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That’s not true, and what you are saying is a complete lie, no modern Chromium browser supports Windows 7 and/or Windows 8, (just like hundreds of programs that don’t support win7 and win8 or just win7), and that’s because Chromium is the one not supporting Win7 or Win8 anymore… so you saying “switch to Google”, that doesn’t even make sense, because you can’t, so what you are saying is wrong and a complete lie.
The only one that currently supports Windows 7 is Firefox, but it is not really a big support because Firefox version 115 will be the last supported Firefox version for users of Windows 7, and 115 was released 2 weeks ago, so their support until Septermber 2024 is the Extended Support Release (ESR), which gets no no features or anything anymore, only security updates.
And then, unless you want to try browsers like Maxthon, Chinese full of controversies https://blog.maxthon.com/2023/03/26/our-commitment-maxthon-will-continue-to-support-windows-7-os/ then keep using your outdated version of Brave or any Chromium browser or Firefox which will not be updated after 115, and stop crying because it is literally your fault.
You are the one being dramatic, and you chose not to upgrade to Win10 (or Win11) which is FREE even today, so it is your fault. Why blame Brave team? it’s just ridiculous how people think developers have to support old versions of Windows only because YOU don’t want to upgrade even if it is FREE to do so…
I mean, your whole ranting and crying and attitude is just like from a really ignorant, with no real education, immature… but maybe use the brain just a little more.
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Hi, I am new to Brave as I just found it thanks to it being recommended by Firefox.
Although I understand that you are defending Brave which is the correct thing to do in this case, I cannot help feeling the same frustration as the original post writer.
He is not alone in NOT wanting to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11, as neither do I.
In fact at this particular moment I am in the process of down-grading one of my computers from Windows 10 back to Windows 7. Microsoft has tried once again to take over my computer with an operating system that does not work the way I want to work. Before you cry ‘you haven’t tried it long enough to know’ I have just spent the last 18 months using Windows 10, and now dislike it now, more than ever.
I have been at this game for a very long time (from 1974), and my first PC (in 1989) came with DR-DOS v3 on an old XT with 640k RAM, and I have to say it was way more fun that the rubbish you get these days. I have used every version of Windows since v2 and although some have been good, others have been awful, Vista and Win8 spring to mind.
Now there may be many great things in Windows 10/11 that appeal to many users, but there is a lot that do the opposite. What Microsoft tends to forget is that I bought and paid for the computer myself, and I am only renting their software. Therefore I should have the right to a say in what it does or does not do. Yes I know they will never create individual versions to please everyone, but they can be a lot more flexible in what you can choose to use or remove, Microsoft Edge being a good example.
Now, back to upgrades, yes they are necessary, but a bit more support should be given to older version users. Not everyone wants the latest versions, and I agree that they cannot support all features in all older versions, but when they decide it’s ‘End of Life’ for Windows XYZ, then there should be a version available for the older version that will always work although it may just be a very basic version of what the newer versions are. That is all I would wish and ask for.
Now getting back to the browser issue, you are correct that Firefox have stopped supporting Win8.1 and below in version 115 of their browser, but they used to allow users to download fully installable versions and not just web stubs that use the web to install the rest of the program. So with that in mind I have just installed v110 of Firefox successfully, and I won’t be upgrading it.
Now comes my reason for coming here in the first place, when I downloaded Brave it did tell me onscreen that it only supported Windows 10 & 11. Imagine my surprise when it actually installed on Windows 7. Okay, it did say that I wouldn’t get any upgrades which I can accept, but what I am really looking for is a full version of Brave not just a web stub installer. So can anyone point me in the direction of such a file? I am sure that if I can’t get hold of such a file, then next time I need to reload Windows 7, I will be told that the stub is no longer valid.
I am sorry if anyone dislikes my rant, but it will never change how I feel about how we are being coerced into accepting choices we shouldn’t be, and that we should be able to customise (within reason) what we choose to run on OUR OWN computers.
Nobody is stopping you from trying to do as you want. As has been said many times before, Brave is open source and you can feel free to try to do as you please to make it work on your device if you have the knowledge to do so. However, you will lose access to things like Sync, Rewards, and/or Wallet.
Why? Much like you have a choice on what to do on YOUR OWN computers, developers have a choice on what to do FOR THEIR software. The time and expenses required to try to make things backwards compatible doesn’t make sense for a company. While Brave is a privacy focused browser, they no doubt have to worry about finances and focus heavily on profits.
You can go to https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/blob/master/CHANGELOG_DESKTOP.md to see a list of all releases and click on them to get to the assets. So from there can compile and run on your device whatever is compatible.
But back to choices. Nobody has to accommodate you for your choices. IF you want to continue using Windows 7, then you can feel free to do that. What you can’t expect is for developers or any companies to cater to you at their own expense to make things available. Whether it’s cars, computer, or anything else…you run the risk of eventually not being able to get replacement parts made. They discontinue manufacturing and you have to make due with you can or move on.
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For those with old hardware that was adequate for Windows 7, set aside rants about (or praise for) subsequent versions of Windows - older hardware may be inadequate for newer versions of Windows. But it’s worth repeating and emphasizing (and repeating): continued on-line use of Windows 7 entails very real security risks - discussed endlessly elsewhere.
There is an alternative if you want to continue using your older hardware: dual-booting which offers continued access to Windows 7 (which I suggest should only be used off-line) plus access to a current version of linux.
This is a Brave help forum. IMHO it’s the wrong place to discuss dual-booting operating systems. If you want to consider this option, do your own web search for dual-boot Windows 7 linux. One limitation I’ll mention because this is a Brave support forum: Brave-for-Linux requires a 64-bit processor. If your hardware uses a 32-bit processor and you want to continue using Brave, this option isn’t for you.
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Actually there is a Chromium fork that still supports Windows 7 (as well as 8, 8.1 and Vista): Supermium.
Visit: https://github.com/win32ss/supermium
and: https://github.com/win32ss/supermium/releases
(Also see:
and,
https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/browser-support-for-windows-7.86383/)
Cheers,
AJN
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I know of many forks that support Windows 7…
You have to understand how Brave is built, it is not a ‘one man fork’ or something, just look at Supermium, it hasn’t had a commit in 1 month, there was a Chromium update 15 days ago.
You have to understand that, Brave usually releases updates faster than even Edge, and then Brave has to make sure every addition to Brave works fine, like Wallet, Vertical tabs and all that.
So why should Brave fight Chromium over and over again to maintain Win7 and Win8 only because you are not willing to upgrade?
I have win11, in a new computer just like I installed in a 11 years old computer… all for FREE.
You make it think like Brave is just one man fork, changing a toggle, and couple settings and done, Brave is a big project, Brave even implements the vertical tabs like Edge, by using C++ and all that, it’s not like Opera or Vivaldi, that decided to use some non-native UI, which has shown to be slower and consume more resources.
Brave is not a small fork by any means and they have added many implementations and all, but maintaining and fighting Chromium in unnecessary things is not smart.
You have to think about the cost of maintaining Brave, now think, they keep releasing Win7 and Win8 versions, then eventually they break, and Brave has to waste time and money going back for something they shouldn’t, when users and people can just Upgrade for Free or use another OS, or well, another Browser that will not give them, features or anything big, but they will have Chromium 117 until the one man fork dies.
Just remember you are linking to a fork that has This branch is 38 commits ahead, 17866 commits behind chromium:main. with nothing happening in a whole month, while Brave updated today/yesterday Brave to 116, the same day as Google did, something not even Microsoft Edge is doing it.
I mean, it’s time to stop this whole conversation, Brave is not going to delay updates for people not willing to update. And just like Android 5 and 6 and next year 7 will not supported anymore, and other versions of Mac and iOS and all, well, the same happens to Windows, you like it or not.
The good thing is people, if they want to, can upgrade for FREE.
Hi Saoiray, thanks for taking time to reply.
I know that things do change and you can get left behind if you refuse to go with the flow. I am prepared to accept that, but what I would like is the option to continue using what I would like to use at the end of the day.
In case you thought I was, I was not blaming Brave for this in the slightest, certainly it seemed that the initial poster was. I was just giving my “2 cents worth” after spending a lifetime working with computers.
Maybe I could have said it better, but I don’t mind using older software that I am familiar with, and I don’t upgrade just for the sake of it. But what I would like is that the final version of a program that will still run on my favourite OS will continue to work for me on that system. I certainly don’t expect any company to maintain older software as they are far too interested in making money these days (I will however exclude Brave and other similar companies from this observation as they are providing their software for free). But I think the other companies should have a part of their website where these versions - full copies, not stubs, could be downloaded from, or at least have a link to where anyone can go to find those programs. I also think that when it comes to program activation there should be a way to do it without having to have the program running, I know some companies do this already.
You see, many of us older users are not impressed with all the bells and whistles that may well have impressed us a lifetime ago, and changing just for the sake of changing is not really an efficient policy, IMHO.
That being said, can you help me with my question regarding where I can download a full version of Brave for future use when the stub fails to load a suitable version for me to use on Windows 7?
I am more than happy and willing to continue with my chosen OS which allows me to use the software that I have spent £10,000+ on over the years, and that I do not have to retrain to use. BTW I still use some programs on Windows XP and Windows 98, plus I still run some older 8-bit monsters. I had to teach myself how to use computers, and I am fortunate in having enough older computers to allow me this ‘luxury’ since I retired. I do however have a computer running Windows 10 purely for internet access. :¬)
Right. There’s no reason to be supporting an OS as old as Windows 7, Windows 95, or Windows 3.1. I like Windows 11, but if you don’t, try Linux.
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Hi Redbike9, thanks for your comments.
You are correct that there may be huge security risk aspects of using older software, but your suggestion doesn’t work for all users. I have had the pleasure of using dual-booting systems since back in the 1990’s so I am well aware of what they offer, and you are right to state that this forum is not the place to discuss them.
I never said I was using older hardware, I said I wanted to continue using some of my older software, and I was not ‘ranting on’ about subsequent versions of Windows. The problem with your suggestion of not going online with older software ie Windows 7, is not valid in many cases as quite a few, if not most, companies nowadays want you to go online to activate your software. While I like Windows 7, it is absolutely useless without other software that can actually do something.
I did not start off with the idea of causing so much backlash, I went to this topic which looked like the closest question to what I wanted to know about. I do not agree with the rant of the initial poster. I said a few things, which I still have a right to say without being blasted for them, as do you and all the others who have responded to me.
The thing I have noticed is that none of you have answered the question that I asked on here, all you have done is give me a hard time for daring to want to use Windows 7.
I asked if there was a full install version of Brave that would run on Windows 7, as I had to use a web-stub to install the version I have. Why did I ask this? Simple, if I want to reinstall Brave then the chances are that the web-stub will be invalid, so if I can download a copy now, I can reuse it in the future. I did not expect Brave to cater to my needs and continue to provide compatible versions, no matter how nice it would be.
Saoiray has been kind enough to give me a Github link which I have yet to checkout.
I don’t really care what other people do with their computers, I have been doing things with computers for longer than I care to remember (1974) and have been using my pc on the ‘internet’ or more correctly accessing Bulletin Boards, since 1990.
One final remark about ‘Security’, I have noticed that anti-virus programs nowadays manage to find virus (or more correctly malware) signatures in most of the old programs, which makes me wonder how they can do this when these programs were on the go long before malware was ‘invented’, and their older versions of anti-virus did not pick them up either. I started running Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit back in 1991/2 and it never found any problems with those programs.
Hi AJNorth, thanks for your reply and the information you have given.
I will have a look at Supermium and see if it will fulfill my needs.
I was never a great fan of Chromium in the past although it was a lot faster than other browsers when it was first released. I decided back then to stick with Firefox which I had discovered around version 3.
As I have said in other posts, I only want a fully installable version that does not need to go online to complete the installation, as I am not a lover of web-stubs. The need to go online to activate my software is the only reason I would use Windows 7 online, I have a pc using Windows 10 for doing that, and only that!
I have no wish at present to use Windows 10/11 for my daily use, although I have purchased genuine copies of each.
I am surprised at how many are ‘upset’ that I still want to use older software. I feel that the newer systems are taking away the user’s control of their computer.
I also have no wish to use the ‘Cloud’, as I would never trust any company to keep my data for me, especially they way they are nowadays with regard to privacy.
Cheers,
vikinggold
@vikinggold I gave you an answer. I shared a link to the location where you can download any full version of Brave. You or someone else would have to dig again for which of the versions last ran on Windows 7. I know it’s been shared here before, but I just don’t remember which. Then you just have to download the correct asset for yourself.
Yes Saoiray, sorry about that I noticed it after I had posted. That will teach me just to quickly read something.
I have said in another reply that you did answer me.
Please accept my apologies and thanks.
Regards,
vikinggold
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Actually quick search claimed 1.46 (might not be, as I see some others saying things like 1.48.152 or 1.48.164) is last one to work on Brave. So we go to the link I gave you, which is https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/blob/master/CHANGELOG_DESKTOP.md and we go to 1.46 and click on it. This brings us to https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.46.144
Cool, just wanted to make sure. I saw in the last reply you gave for me directly you had mentioned about the stubs and all. Then saw this last one, so was noticing you seemed to miss it or misunderstand.
That said, I’ll be honest and advise that I really get confused on which things to download. I kind of wish they had it a little easier to know what to install. I had just sent a message to Support to see if anyone might be able to guide a bit more.
Definitely hoping @Mattches can chime in here later to advise how to know which assets to download/install.
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Thank you once again for that, I have just been to Github and downloaded what I need so that is fantastic.
Probably a lot of these problems would go away if they didn’t use these stubs all the time. personally I don’t see the point in downloading one piece of software just so I can use it to download another, but hey, somebody else does. I spent many years reloading crashed computers, usually several daily, and I preferred to use the full versions to do offline installations as my internet connection wouldn’t support doing so many through online installations. It’s a bit different now, but old habits die hard.
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Hi Fuller1754,
Thanks for your reply.
I do have a laptop running Linux, plus I have several Raspberry Pi’s which also use Linux.
My only problem is that 99.9% of my software is designed for Windows, and I really like the items that I have bought over the years, some a great cost.
Hello vikinggold,
Thank you for the kind reply (which original comment seems to have stirred-up something of a hornets’ nest…).
(My intent was simply to mention a Chromium-based browser compatible with Win 7 that is still in active development and substantially safer than Chromium 109, albeit not necessarily with the latest Chromium build.)
To answer your original question, the last version of Brave Browser that runs under Win 7 is: V. 1.47.186 (Chromium: 109.0.5414.119), the full installers for which can be found at: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.47.186.
With respect to Windows 7 (and also Windows Server 2008 R2), there is an outfit known as 0Patch (co-founded by computer science professional Mitja Kolsek) that creates “micropatches for the most-likely-to-be-exploited critical vulnerabilities”.
“The goal of 0patch is not to micropatch every vulnerability but the important ones, such as those exploited in the wild or those without official vendor patches.”
As of now, they will continue to offer patches for Win 7 through 2025.
(One still must utilize an effective third-party antimalware solution; my current choice is Bitdefender Free, which I also run with Malwarebytes Premium, for which I have grandfathered lifetime licenses. Avira Free also offers decent protection.)
Finally, to run legacy software (that no longer receive security updates) under Win 7 with virtually bullet-proof safety, you might also investigate the venerable sandboxing utility Sandboxie (which continues under active development). It is easy to use, and effective.
https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie (documentation: https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/sandboxie-docs).
Hope these prove useful. Take care.
Cheers,
AJN
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As a new member here, I am limited to four URLs per comment, so here are a few more articles that may prove useful:
0Patch Promises Two More Years of Patch Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
0patch offers two more years of updates for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Can I trust 0Patch?
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/can-i-trust-0patch/e381875f-8c2b-4e9b-9ea7-fd954c5801ef
(This article has a link to one at AskWoody, founded by Woody Leonhard who has since retired and turned over the reins to a successor generation of outstanding contributors; it is a highly-recommended site.
The actual article linked to is by Canadian Tech, a long-time computer engineer; it is a both interesting and thought-provoking take on Win 7 security, post EOL.).
How to Run Anything You Download Securely With Sandboxie Plus for Windows
Cheers,
AJN
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