Microsoft’s once-ubiquitous web browser, Internet Explorer, has officially entered its last day of life.
From tomorrow, any remaining IE users will be redirected to the company’s newer Edge browser. Microsoft had announced that it would be ending support for Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, in a blog post on May 19, 2021. Now that final day of operation has arrived.
Internet Explorer arrived on August 16, 1995, at a time when the internet was just starting to blow up as a mainstream concern. Prior to the arrival of Google, let alone social networks such as Facebook and TikTok, it was the primary means of interacting with web contact for a whole early generation of connected users.
Microsoft’s dominance came from its stranglehold on the PC OS ecosystem, with a copy of IE bundled in with every copy of Windows. This would eventually get it into trouble with the US government on antitrust grounds, opening the way for rival web browsers to make up ground.
Sure enough, IE was eventually superseded by faster, slicker web browsers, not the least of which was Google’s Chrome.
The death knell for IE was sounded in 2015, when Microsoft launched its own IE replacement in the form of Edge. Not only was this a faster, more secure form of web browser, but it had the tools built in to render IE completely obsolete.
Microsoft stated in the aforementioned 2021 blog post that “the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge”. The newer browser has an Internet Explorer mode built into it, enabling you to access those few old Internet Explorer-based websites and applications from within Edge.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
