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Internet Explorer: The Microsoft browser is no longer up-to-date
Photo: Levine Roberts / IMAGO
The era of Internet Explorer has come to an end – Microsoft has long since seen it that way.
This Wednesday, the company largely phased out its support for the browser, which was introduced in 1995 and was once widespread.
Windows 10 versions that are assigned to the so-called “semi-annual channel” are affected, i.e. they receive a function update twice a year
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When trying to start the browser, users should from now on be directed to the successor program Edge.
Internet Explorer will later be finally deactivated on the affected systems via a Windows update.
According to data from the Statcounter website, Internet Explorer recently had a global market share of 0.64 percent in the desktop browser segment.
Microsoft announced a good year ago that Internet Explorer 11, which last received an update on May 7, will go down in Internet history as the last major version of the program.
For Windows 11, Microsoft's latest operating system, the group no longer provided any version of the software that had been widely used for decades.
The company has long been advising users who are currently surfing with Internet Explorer to switch to its Edge browser, which was released in 2015.
Microsoft has installed a so-called IE mode in Edge, with which apps and websites designed for Internet Explorer can continue to be used (more on this here).
IE mode should remain part of the new browser, which Microsoft is promoting as faster and more secure, at least until 2029.
Internet Explorer will continue to run on some systems
Internet Explorer is not dead with the current change.
Excluded from Microsoft's initiative are the so-called LTSC versions of Windows 10. However, these "Long-Term Service Channel" variants are only available to companies that are willing to pay for long-term support.
Versions of Internet Explorer for Windows 8.1 and so-called ESU versions of Windows 7, which are only offered to companies and which offer so-called "extended security updates" for a certain surcharge, are also not affected by the end of support.
Microsoft ended general support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020.
Internet Explorer received a farewell greeting on Wednesday from Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser.
"Farewell Internet Explorer," tweeted it.
"We didn't always agree, but it's a shame to lose a non-Chromium-based browser." Mozilla is alluding to the fact that Microsoft's Edge browser - unlike Firefox - has been available since 2020 as part of the Chromium open-source project based on a code base similar to Google's Chrome browser.
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