The web browser used by more than 90% of users in the late 90s of the last century, Internet Explorer, is about to be completely phased out by Microsoft.
According to Tech Unwrapped, the latest version of Internet Explorer, IE 11, was released in 2013, 10 years ago. Since then, Microsoft realized it had nothing to do with the browser and that if it wanted to enter the web browser market, the company had to start all over again.
As a result, Microsoft rolled out the new Edge browser at the launch of Windows 8 with the company’s proprietary technology. However, this technology quickly failed and forced Microsoft to switch Edge to a version based on rival Google’s Chromium technology. These efforts later helped make Microsoft Edge the second most used PC web browser.
Notably, although Internet Explorer is no longer in use, this browser is still available even in Windows 11 thanks to its integration into Edge. This is because many companies still depend on it to be able to use their intranet. Even some government agency websites in some countries only work better with this outdated browser than Chrome or Firefox.
However, everything is coming to an end when Microsoft will remove Internet Explorer from Edge on February 14. To do this, the company will roll out an update to Edge that will disable IE 11 from all computers that still have it installed, and users who try to open it will be redirected directly to Edge. Previously, Microsoft added a mode to Edge Chromium called IE Mode to help companies avoid difficulties since they made the change. With this mode, users can access any service or website as if they were using IE but from the Edge browser. In this mode, the web browser will only load tools in the background. IE Mode exists in business editions of Windows as well as those with extended support.
There are almost no websites that work well with Internet Explorer right now as new web standards make navigating using this browser almost impossible. That’s why Internet Explorer doesn’t make sense for Microsoft to keep maintaining it.