Internet Explorer is Officially Dead

After more than 25 years, Microsoft has officially retired the Internet Explorer Browser from service. The ageing web browser is being sunset in favour of Microsoft Edge, with support officially withdrawn for IE 11 today. It’s the end of an internet era after Microsoft initially moved away from the Internet Explorer branding with Windows 10 in 2015.

However, many users will not notice a change as most of them have either switched to Edge or moved to Chrome, Firefox or Opera. Usage of Internet Explorer has plummeted in recent years, with StatCounter showing IE has less than half a per cent of the overall browser market share. Microsoft has been trying to stop people from using Internet Explorer for years now, and the company previously labelled it a “compatibility solution” rather than a browser that businesses should actively be using.

Microsoft has started rolling out prompts for Internet Explorer users and with the latest update of Windows 8.1, Microsoft Edge has been installed automatically. Eventually, Internet Explorer will be permanently disabled as part of a future Windows update.

The New redirect for internet explorer users

While Microsoft has moved to its Chromium-powered Edge as the default browser on Windows 11, the MSHTML engine that powers Internet Explorer is still part of Windows 11. It exists purely for IE mode in Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft says it will support IE mode in Edge through at least 2029.

Many business have moved on from Internet Explorer, But some might still be in the process of doing so. Edge has an IE mode which loads the website using the old MSHTML engine to make the website work and load properly.

Windows 11 users won’t have to worry about Internet Explorer, as it doesn’t even ship with an accessible version of IE. It’s the first time Microsoft hasn’t bundled IE with a new version of Windows for more than 20 years. That bundling decision led to the infamous United States v. Microsoft antitrust battle and the European Commission’s action against Microsoft that resulted in a browser ballot inside certain versions of Windows.