Say your goodbyes to Internet Explorer

Microsoft is putting Internet Explorer (mostly) out of its misery in 2022, when the company ends mainstream support for the aging browser. 

On Wednesday, the company announced the official retirement date: “With Microsoft Edge capable of assuming this responsibility and more, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10."

At that point, the IE11 desktop application will be disabled and redirect to Microsoft Edge, the company added in an FAQ about the shutdown.

Originally launched in 1995, the much-maligned Internet Explorer has long been irrelevant in today’s consumer market. It currently holds a measly 3.8 percent share of the desktop browser space. Google’s Chrome dominates with a nearly 70 percent share.

But surprisingly, Microsoft has continued bundling Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10, even as the company has been heavily promoting Edge to consumers. That’s because a lot of older, enterprise software or websites only work with IE. According to a Microsoft commissioned-survey, companies on average use 1,678 legacy apps. 

Nevertheless, last year Microsoft began signaling the end of Internet Explorer when it announced Microsoft 365 office applications would no longer run on the browser as of August 2021. To compensate, the company is encouraging users still reliant on IE to use the “Internet Explorer mode” found on Edge. 

“With Microsoft Edge, we provide a path to the web’s future while still respecting the web’s past,” the company wrote in Wednesday’s announcement. “Change was necessary, but we didn’t want to leave reliable, still-functioning websites and applications behind.”

In a video, Microsoft also said 99.7 percent of apps are compatible with the newest versions of its products. For apps that don't work, Redmond is encouraging enterprises to contact the company, and promising that its engineers will fix the issue "at no additional cost."

If you must have IE, the good news is that Internet Explorer 11 will remain available for users of Windows 10 Long-Term Servicing Channel and via the Server Internet Explorer 11 desktop applications. In addition, the company plans to continue to support the MSHTML Trident engine behind IE11. 

Still, Microsoft’s announcement goes on to list the various reasons why organizations should adopt Edge over IE to access their legacy applications and websites. A big reason is security. “While Internet Explorer 11 packaged security updates monthly, Microsoft Edge can issue security patches for immediate vulnerabilities within days, if not hours,” the company said.  

At the same time, Microsoft is trying to nudge enterprises away from IE entirely. The company notes the Internet Explorer mode in Edge will last only until at least 2029. “Additionally, Microsoft will give one year of notice before retiring the IE mode experience when the time comes,” it said.