After more than 25 years, Microsoft announced this week that it will retire the Internet Explorer web browser on June 15, 2022.
Launched in 1995, Internet Explorer was the dominant browser on Windows PCs for years until options such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers came along.
“We are announcing that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge,” Sean Lyndersay, a Microsoft Edge program manager, said in a blog post on Wednesday. “The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10.”
“With Microsoft Edge, we provide a path to the web’s future while still respecting the web’s past,” Lyndersay continued. “Change was necessary, but we didn’t want to leave reliable, still-functioning websites and applications behind. We’re here to help you transition to the more comprehensive browsing experience of Microsoft Edge and tell you a bit more about why we think it will address your needs, both at home and at work.”
The death of Internet Explorer has been expected for quite some time, particularly ever since Microsoft killed off the brand in 2015 with the launch of its modern web browser, Microsoft Edge.
In 2019, Microsoft labeled Internet Explorer a “compatibility solution” rather than a browser and encouraged businesses to stop using the aging browser in favor of Edge and its IE mode. Last year, the tech giant ended support for Internet Explorer 11 for the Microsoft Teams web app and announced plans to shut down Internet Explorer by August 2021.
