Microsoft Corporation has announced that it will retire its popular browser, Internet Explorer, by June 15, 2022, and will be replaced by Windows 10's built-in web browser, Edge.
Shawn Lindersay, program manager for Microsoft Edge on Microsoft's official website, said in a recent blog post that Internet Explorer support for the public will be phased out by June 15, 2022.
Although Internet Explorer will continue to be usable, updates will be discontinued for general users. However, it will not affect Windows 10 LTSC and Explorer 11 desktop products.
This blog highlights the strengths of the Edge browser and highlights the flaws and problems of Internet Explorer, and asks users to start using Microsoft Edge before June next year.
For this purpose, users have been given the facility to transfer all their bookmarks etc. to 'Edge' on Internet Explorer and also use 'Edge' in 'IE11 Competitiveness Mode' if desired so that Internet Explorer 11 All the facilities of 'Edge' should be available to them in the same way.
It should be noted that in recent years, Internet Explorer has encountered a number of technical issues, most of which are related to online security.
According to Microsoft's official blog, all these issues have been resolved in 'Edge'.
The first version of Internet Explorer was released in 1995 with Windows 95.
Later new versions were introduced and it became more and more popular, until in 2004 Internet Explorer was used on more than 95% of the world's computers.
Since then, the popularity of Internet Explorer has waned and today its share of the global browser market is only about 4%.
Google Chrome is currently the world's most popular web browser with a 64% share of the global browser market.
According to Some Reports
THIS WEEK MICROSOFT finally took a step that's been Years in the making: the company said it will retire its embattled Internet Explorer web browser on June 15, 2022. IE launched in 1995 and came preinstalled on every Windows device for almost 20 years beginning in 1997. But its ubiquity should not be confused with popularity. IE had speed, reliability, and performance issues, not to mention an endless parade of deeply problematic security issues.
Today, IE has long since fallen out of favor. Microsoft has already spent five years cutting off support for various versions. But as of November, the browser was still the fourth most-popular for desktops with 5.2 percent market share, ahead of Apple's Safari, according to data from the web analytics firm NetMarketShare. And attackers are still actively targeting the sliver of IE devices that remain. That's why Microsoft will need to move even more users away over the next year. And those who still remain after that will stay exposed long term.
“In recent years we continue to see exploit kits targeting vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer via malvertising campaigns," says Cedric Owens, a longtime security researcher and red team leader. "This then leads to Windows hosts being compromised with ransomware or malware that steals information. Microsoft moving away from Internet Explorer is a good thing.”
Microsoft has been trying to nudge its users toward Edge, the IE replacement that debuted in Windows 10, since 2015. It did so again this week. “If Internet Explorer has been your go-to for years, Microsoft Edge can now be your trusted web companion,” Microsoft Edge program manager Sean Lyndersay wrote in a blog post on Wednesday announcing IE's end of life plan.
But like several other pervasive late 1990s and early 2000s Microsoft Products, Internet Explorer has Taken a long time to die.
If you remember the long farewell windows xp, a project that is still very much ongoing, you've had a preview of what will likely happen with Internet Explorer. Microsoft 365 and other apps will end support for all versions of IE on August 17, and Internet Explorer 11 will fully retire a little over a year from now. But even then, versions of Internet Explorer will linger on computers that don't receive updates, potentially including those in manufacturing and critical infrastructure settings. And a fraction of a percent is still a lot of devices when there are billions of Windows machines out there.
“While most of the vulnerabilities date back several years, users probably won’t stop relying on Internet Explorer, even when it’s officially killed by Microsoft," says Ryan Kalember, executive vice president of cybersecurity strategy at the enterprise security firm Proofpoint. "Significantly reducing risk will require active removal similar to what occurred recently with flash, but we anticipate threat actors will continue to evolve their tactics as they target Microsoft users."
Plus, as with Windows XP's prolonged swan song, Microsoft actually will continue to support some versions of IE for a little longer. Server Internet Explorer 11 won't lose support next year, nor will the IE that's in Microsoft's Windows 10 enterprise “LTSC” program, or Long-Term Servicing Channel.
To deal with legacy websites that were purpose-built to IE's specifications years ago, Microsoft has an “IE mode" in Edge that can still load the pages. Overall, though, the average web user shouldn't encounter major issues, or any issues really, switching to any current browser. But old habits die hard, and Internet Explorer will likely haunt the recesses of the web for awhile longer.
nice.