Microsoft has retired IE today after nearly 27 years. Support has been officially withdrawn for IE 11 yesterday. It’s the end of an internet era after Microsoft initially moved away from the Internet Explorer branding with the release of Windows 10 in 2015.
Microsoft updated both Windows and its website today to mark the official death of Internet Explorer. If you try to download or use the browser, Microsoft will now nudge you toward Edge instead.
This applies to “certain versions of Windows 10,” Microsoft noted.
“With a growing number of websites no longer supporting Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge offers a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing experience that can still open legacy, Internet Explorer-dependent sites when needed,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The browser’s death is not a surprise nor is it especially inconvenient for a large majority of internet users in 2022. Web analytics site Stat counter (as noted by The Verge) indicates that, by its death, IE usage had dropped to less than 1 percent of the total browser market share. The world functionally decided it was dead long before Microsoft did.
Microsoft has been trying to stop people from using Internet Explorer for years now, and the company previously labeled it a “compatibility solution” rather than a browser that businesses should actively be using.
At one point in the past, Internet Explorer ruled the browser realm. In 2003, it controlled 95% of the browser market. The days of Internet Explorer’s reign are long over, though, and Microsoft moved on to Edge. But Microsoft’s push to integrate the newly AI-boosted Bing search engine into Edge has sparked new interest in both.
It is important to note that while the redirection will be in effect from today, visual references to IE such as icons on the Taskbar will continue to exist for the next few months. They will be removed by June 13, 2023, through a Windows Security “B” release update. You will also be able to get rid of them earlier by installing the optional, preview “C” release on May 23, 2023.
