Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Internet Explorer’s slow death has finally come to an end

By

Today, Microsoft is concluding the retirement and end-of-life support for its Internet Explorer browser.

This will finalize a months-long transition from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge. Edge has been the brand’s primary browser since early 2020, which now comes as the default browser on new Windows devices.

Microsoft Edge in the pinned section.

Microsoft said in a blog that its final send-off for Internet Explorer will not be immediate but will roll out over the next few months. Internet Explorer icons will still be present on desktops but will send you to Microsoft Edge in an Internet Explorer mode.

Recommended Videos

Microsoft Edge already had a “Reload in IE mode” button in its taskbar to get you accustomed to using the new browser. Internet Explorer mode allows you to view websites and applications based on legacy scripts and code in a more compatible fashion.

Related

The brand has plans to disable Internet Explorer and remove its icons from the Windows operating system in a future update.

Microsoft’s retirement plan for Internet Explorer will affect all versions of the browser currently supported on Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise, Edu, and IoT, the brand said.

Microsoft Edge has already proved to be fairly popular with approximately 212,695,000 users worldwide, according to a study by Atlas VPN. Data from Statcounter placed Edge at about 10.07%  of the most used browsers globally.

However, there does appear to still be a solid group of users keeping Internet Explorer alive, professional organizations running Windows 10.

According to research by the IT asset management group Lansweeper, approximately 9 million devices used across 33,000 different organizations are still running the legacy browser.

Many reasons organizations might have held off updating to Microsoft Edge include IT departments not being aware of the Internet Explorer end-of-life status, cost issues, and other business matters, Lansweeper told TechRadar Pro.

As final updates do begin hitting desktops to disable Internet Explorer, companies will have to pay attention.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Fionna Agomuoh
Fionna Agomuoh
Computing Writer
Fionna Agomuoh is a technology journalist with over a decade of experience writing about various consumer electronics topics…
Microsoft Edge has a new trick for increased performance
Edge Browser

The Microsoft Edge browser is now even more optimized and has a bit higher performance on Windows. That's thanks to changes in version 102 of the browser, which can now automatically compress disk caches.

Microsoft talked about this in a technical post, explaining that its overall goal is to "deliver the best performing browser possible on Windows and other platforms." In what seems like a shot at Google Chrome, Microsoft also mentioned that they're aware that when a web browser consumed too many resources, the system can be slowed down. That's where disk caching comes into play.

Read more
Why nearly 50% of Windows 10 users still cling to Internet Explorer
Laptop running Internet Explorer.

In an unexpected development, it seems that many users just can't let Internet Explorer go. Although the browser is retiring, new research shows that up to 47% of Windows 10 devices still use Explorer as their browser.

Seeing as Microsoft has announced its retirement in 2020, users have been given plenty of time to move on to a different browser -- so why is it that so many still choose to stick with Explorer?

Read more
Microsoft says Edge has already saved 273 petabytes of RAM
how to mute tab your browser microsoft edge edgehtml tabs

Microsoft's efforts for browser efficiency appear to be paying off as the brand has announced that its built-in Sleeping Tabs tool is highly effective at conserving RAM on devices.

Microsoft recently shared on its Dev Twitter dedicated to the Microsoft Edge browser that its Sleeping Tabs tool has saved users a whopping 273 petabytes of RAM or 273,000 TB of RAM over the last 28 days. That equates to approximately 40MB of memory per tab of the 6 billion tabs tested, the company added.

Read more