Microsoft to shut down Internet Explorer Wednesday

Tech giant, Microsoft, will, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, shut down its iconic browser, Internet Explorer (IE), completely.

This means that any window user relying on the browser will have to upgrade to Microsoft Edge to be able to access the internet as the company ends support for IE11.

Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer in 1995 as an add-on package for Windows 95. After that, Microsoft’s internet browser was made available to everyone as a part of the package with the later versions of Windows.

Internet Explorer reached its peak in 2003 with a 95% user share. However, after that, Internet Explorer witnessed a major downfall as it failed to keep up with the other browsers. Since 2016, Microsoft has not introduced any new version of Internet Explorer. In fact, Internet Explorer 11 is the last and final version which was released in 2013.

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Microsoft had in a blog post in April this year advised organizations using the IE to proactively retire the browser. The company said: “Instead of waiting, we recommend that you schedule your own internal retirement date—the best way to prepare for IE disablement after June 15 is to proactively retire IE in your organizations before June 15.”

“It has been quite a journey this past year, and we appreciate all the work you have put in to make sure your organization is ready for when IE retires on June 15, 2022. The future of Internet Explorer is in Microsoft Edge, and with Microsoft Edge, your organization gets a dual-engine advantage, capable of running your IE-dependent sites, while offering a faster, more secure, and modern experience for everything else,” the company added.

The destiny of Internet Explorer was decided the day Microsoft released its chromium-based Edge browser in 2015. The company first brought Edge as a system application for Windows 10 and Xbox, and it was later released for Android and iOS in 2017. According to StatCounter, Microsoft Edge is the world’s second most popular desktop browser.