Microsoft Officially Ceased Internet Explorer

Feb, 2023 - By WMR

The tech giant puts an end to an era of Internet Explorer that has been around for over 25 years with the announcement of the new Microsoft Edge browser.

Microsoft announced that it has permanently disabled the desktop version of Internet Explorer (IE) on specific versions of Windows 10 and replaced it with the updated Microsoft Edge browser. Although Microsoft announced the retirement of Internet Explorer on June 15, 2021, it was only on Tuesday that the app ceased functioning for users.

The announcement marks the end of an era for Internet Explorer, which was launched in 1995 and quickly became the dominant web browser. However, in recent years, it has struggled to keep up with more modern and sophisticated browsers, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Throughout its existence, the company developed 11 iterations of Explorer, and the ultimate version was launched in 2013. The replacement for Explorer, Microsoft Edge, which was launched in 2015 by the tech giant, continued to coexist with its predecessor on devices until this week. According to the company’s announcement, as an increasing number of websites stop supporting Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge provides a faster, more secure, and more contemporary browsing experience while allowing access to legacy sites that rely on Internet Explorer. Edge will transfer bookmarks and browsing data from IE seamlessly and notify users through a dialogue box. As a result, users who try to access Explorer will now be redirected to Edge.

There are still some remaining issues with Internet Explorer. As per Microsoft’s support document, the app’s “visual references” will persist in Windows 10 until a security update in June 2023. However, Internet Explorer will still be available on certain platforms, including Windows Server and non-consumer versions of Windows 10, like the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) editions of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 IoT, which no longer receive new security updates or Edge versions.

Microsoft Edge’s IE compatibility mode will still have the MSHTML rendering engine integrated, and this will be available until “at least 2029.” The company will notify users a year prior to retiring IE mode, indicating that it may take nearly ten years before the obsolete Internet Explorer is completely phased out.