RIP Internet Explorer; You'll Not be Missed
IE was introduced in 1995 as part of the Microsoft Plus! upgrade pack and quickly became the leading web browser in the world, ahead of its nearest competitor, Netscape Navigator. However, it declined in popularity in the early 2000s with the launch of newer, faster and more feature-filled browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. IE also came under scrutiny for its many security vulnerabilities that turned users away from the browser. Eager to stay relevant in the browser market, Microsoft launched the Edge browser and rolled it out to Windows 10 users in 2015. It is now the default browser bundled with Windows 11.
Related: Microsoft Edge Will Offer A Free VPN Service But It's Only 1GB
Twenty-seven years after it was first launched, Internet Explorer has finally been retired by Microsoft. In an official blog post announcing the end-of-support for the troubled web browser, the company said that opening Internet Explorer from this point on would «progressively redirect users to… Microsoft Edge with IE mode.» The IE Mode is an Edge Chromium feature that allows users to run legacy apps and visit old sites that are incompatible with the new browser. Eventually, Microsoft will disable the older browser permanently via a Windows update, and all signs of the deprecated software will be removed from devices. Released in late 2020, Internet Explorer 11 was the final major version of IE.
The decision to end support for Internet Explorer follows a turbulent journey that saw IE become the butt of all jokes on social media, computer forums and internet message boards worldwide. One of the running jokes in the early 2000s was that it was the best browser to download Firefox, which was then the leading browser on Windows and
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