Microsoft announced:
After 25+ years of helping people use and experience the web, Internet Explorer (IE) is officially retired and out of support as of today, June 15, 2022. To many millions of you, thank you for using Internet Explorer as your gateway to the internet.
It announced the plan last year, making Internet Explorer 11 its final version.
Internet Explorer debuted on Windows desktop computers in 1995 and by 2004, had cornered 95% of the market.
But now, Google Chrome, Apple's Safari and Mozilla Firefox are dominant.
Microsoft’s market domination came about due to its bundling of the software as part of the Windows operating system. The experience was often sluggish and when faster competition arrived with Mozilla’s Firefox and later Google Chrome, people jumped ship in droves.
Users wanting to stick with Microsoft are being directed to Microsoft Edge, launched in 2015, alongside Windows 10.
There’s a good chance you haven’t used Internet Explorer in many years – or ever. Microsoft has been nudging people away from it in favour of the Edge browser, which was launched in 2015 and is built on Google’s open-source Chromium.
In its place will be Microsoft Edge, a browser launched in 2015, which it said was
“a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer.” It may be a comfort to some that “Microsoft Edge has Internet Explorer mode (‘IE mode’) built in, so you can access those legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and applications straight from Microsoft Edge,”
the company said.
