Legacy operating systems are unsupported versions of operating systems.
For instance, Microsoft ended official support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 in January of 2023.
Legacy unsupported operating systems receive no security updates and may have known security vulnerabilities.
With no official support and Firefox (Tor Browser is based on Firefox ESR) dropping support for legacy operating systems, maintaining Tor Browser for obsolete operating systems becomes unfeasible and a security risk for users.
Support for Windows 8.1 or lower and macOS 10.14 or lower has been discontinued with the release of Tor Browser 14, New Release: Tor Browser 14.0 | The Tor Project
Users on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 will continue receiving security updates for Tor Browser 13.5 for a limited time until at least March of 2025.
If you are on one of these legacy operating systems and have Tor Browser installed, your browser should continue getting the aforementioned updates.
If you have to install a fresh copy of the browser, please follow the instructions below as relevant to your operating system.
For Windows 7/8/8.1:
- Download Tor Browser directly from our website,
for 64-bit Windows: https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/13.5.9/tor-browser-windows-x86_64-portable-13.5.9.exe
for 32-bit Windows: https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/13.5.9/tor-browser-windows-i686-portable-13.5.9.exe - (optional but recommended) Download the accompanying Tor Browser signature file,
for 64-bit Windows: https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/13.5.9/tor-browser-windows-x86_64-portable-13.5.9.exe.asc
for 32-bit Windows: https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/13.5.9/tor-browser-windows-i686-portable-13.5.9.exe.asc - (optional but recommended) Install GnuPG for Windows to verify Tor Browser’s signature.
Download Gpg4win and run its installer, Gpg4win - Download Gpg4win - (optional but recommended) Fetch and verify Tor Browser’s signature from Windows’ command-line.
Run the following commands on Command Prompt / Windows’ Powershell,
4.1 Import the Tor Browser Developers signing key.
gpg --auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys torbrowser@torproject.org
4.2 After importing the key, you can save it to a file.
gpg --output ./tor.keyring --export 0xEF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290
4.3 Verify the signature.
for 64-bit Windows: gpgv --keyring .\tor.keyring Downloads\tor-browser-windows-x86_64-portable-13.5.9.exe.asc Downloads\tor-browser-windows-x86_64-portable-13.5.9.exe
for 32-bit Windows: gpgv --keyring .\tor.keyring Downloads\tor-browser-windows-i686-portable-13.5.9.exe.asc Downloads\tor-browser-windows-i686-portable-13.5.9.exe
4.4 Check the output.
The result of the command should contain: gpgv: Good signature from "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <torbrowser@torproject.org>
For macOS 10.12/10.13/10.14:
- Download Tor Browser directly from our website, https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/13.5.9/tor-browser-macos-13.5.9.dmg
- (optional but recommended) Download the accompanying Tor Browser signature file, https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/13.5.9/tor-browser-macos-13.5.9.dmg.asc
- (optional but recommended) Install GPGTools for macOS to verify Tor Browser’s signature.
Download and install GPGTools, https://gpgtools.org/ - (optional but recommended) Fetch and verify Tor Browser’s signature from macOS Terminal.
Run the following commands on macOS Terminal,
4.1 Import the Tor Browser Developers signing key.
gpg --auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys torbrowser@torproject.org
4.2 After importing the key, you can save it to a file.
gpg --output ./tor.keyring --export 0xEF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290
4.3 Verify the signature.
gpgv --keyring ./tor.keyring ~/Downloads/tor-browser-macos-13.5.9.dmg.asc ~/Downloads/tor-browser-macos-13.5.9.dmg
4.4 Check the output.
The result of the command should contain: gpgv: Good signature from "Tor Browser Developers (signing key) <torbrowser@torproject.org>
It is strongly advised to upgrade your operating system for access to the latest versions of Tor Browser 14 including critical security updates and new features. Windows users are recommended to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11. macOS users are recommended to upgrade to macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later. In some cases, it may require newer hardware in order to support the newer operating system.