Microsoft will stop supporting Internet Explorer next year
Microsoft will stop supporting Internet Explorer 11, the latest version of that web browser, on June 15, 2022. The browser is thus permanently replaced in Windows 10 by Microsoft’s newer browser, Edge.
“Over the past year you may have noticed that we are removing support for Internet Explorer,” Microsoft employee Sean Lundersay wrote in a blog post. He also describes that the company previously announced that it will stop Internet Explorer support for Microsoft 365 services this year. “Today we are in the next phase of that journey. We announce that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 lies in Microsoft Edge.”
Internet Explorer 11 achieves a eolstatus in regular versions of Windows 10 and Windows 10 IoT. The developer emphasizes that Internet Explorer 11 will remain available for Windows Server and the LTSCversion of Windows 10. Windows 8.1 and the extended security updates version of Windows 7 also keep the web browser, according to an additional blog post from Microsoft.
In addition, the Edge browser includes an Internet Explorer mode. Microsoft added that feature to the web browser a few years ago. IE mode supports apps and websites that are only supported within Internet Explorer, which can be useful for companies that still rely on such sites or software. This mode supports, for example, ActiveX controls. Microsoft promises to support this IE mode in the Edge browser at least through 2029.
Internet Explorer was released by Microsoft in 1995 and was the world’s most popular web browser for many years. Twenty years after the release of IE, Microsoft released its Edge browser as a replacement for Internet Explorer. With that, the end of the web browser had been coming for a while. As Lundersay reports in the blog post, the company is already ending Microsoft 365 support for Internet Explorer on August 17. From that date, users will no longer be able to use the company’s online services such as OneDrive, Outlook and Office 365 apps. The web version of Teams has not been supported in Internet Explorer since November.
