Nvidia plans to officially drop driver support for outdated Windows 7, 8 in October

While over a billion devices now updated to Windows 10, the graphics hardware manufacturer plans to drop support for older Windows versions later this year. Are you one of the estimated 15 percent of users running the outdated Windows 7?

FILE PHOTO: The logo of technology company Nvidia is seen at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California February 11, 2015.  (REUTERS)

American multinational technology company Nvidia is planning to drop support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 later this year. The drivers will be exclusively available for Windows 10 in October, with only critical security updates available on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 through September 2024.

According to The Verge, Microsoft has already dropped support for Windows 7 and Windows 8, and even the extended support for Windows 8.1 will end in January 2023.

"The vast majority of our GeForce customers have migrated to Windows 10 OS. In order to ensure GeForce owners experience the best possible security, support, and functionality, Nvidia will now focus on Windows 10 operating system," read a support note from Nvidia.

Even though there are 1.3 billion active Windows 10 devices, but Windows 7 is still in use in many parts of the world. Estimates say that Windows 7 still accounts for 15 percent of all Windows versions.

Windows 10 dominates Steam usage though, making up nearly 93 percent with Windows 7 at just under 2 percent. Microsoft is also expected to launch a new version of Windows, likely to be named Windows 11, in October.

As per The Verge, Nvidia's last driver to officially support these old versions of Windows will be made available on August 31st, with an October 4th release being the first to only support Windows 10.