It is done! After 27 wholesome years, Internet Explorer has finally been laid to rest. Once the dominant web browser on the planet, the vintage application is now officially retired and out of support.
The big moment happened with the release of the June 2022 Patch Tuesday updates, which went live last week. These are the last security patches that Internet Explorer will receive before being retired completely.
In other words, any bug or vulnerability discovered in the program will simply remain unfixed.
As for the legacy of what was the number on browser, there is much to talk.
IE, as it was lovingly known, boasted a 95% market share in 2004. But it soon started losing both market and mind share after the arrival of better and faster browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Finally, the rise of smartphones slowly destroyed its ubiquity.
Internet Explorer just could not keep up with the rapid changes in the online landscape, which were led by a few alternative choices.
Of course, things changed quite rapidly in the world of Windows as well.
Internet Explorer 11 was the last version of this famous yet infamous browser. Microsoft bundled IE11 with Windows 8.1 as a modern default option in the operating system. Though it never quite reached the heights it was expected to, it became the second most used web browser in 2014, behind IE8.
But the situation changed for the worse after the advent of Microsoft Edge in 2015, which was bundled as the default choice on Windows 10. This shiny new web browser received a new engine in 2020 — the same one that powers Chrome — and continues to grow from strength to strength.
Microsoft, for its part, says that the future of Internet Explorer is Edge. And for good reason, too, as it is now one of the more capable options in the extremely competitive web browser space.
While few people will mourn its passing, many businesses still use Internet Explorer as the underlying engine for their custom-developed software. It is these organizations that will be the most affected by this retirement.
But it goes to show that no matter how dominant a product’s position, a decline always lurks in the shadows. Once these wheels start turning, it is nearly impossible to find a way back to previous glory.
June 15, 2022, will now live in memory as the day when Internet Explorer was launched.
End of an era!