Starting today (5/15/2022), Internet Explorer 11 will disappear from Windows PCs. Although: not quite. IE mutates into a zombie.
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On June 15, 2022, Microsoft is retiring a veteran of the IT world: Internet Explorer.
© Koshiro K/Shutterstock.com
Internet Explorer has been a death row candidate for a long time, but the final step will follow in June 2022 – not quite 27 years after it was first introduced. Because June 15th is patch day and then Microsoft will bring an update for IE on computers with Windows 10 20H2 or younger Windows versions for the last time. This update causes the IE 11 desktop application to redirect to Edge when opening a webpage. However, Microsoft does not want to implement this forwarding immediately for all affected computers on June 15, 2022, but rather step by step over the next few months after June 15. You can read all the details in this message: How Microsoft will remove Internet Explorer 11 on June 15th.
The long death march of IE
The following reports also describe how Microsoft has gradually reduced support for IE 11:
Internet Explorer 11: Microsoft 365 is no longer supported
Internet Explorer will soon no longer open Youtube, Twitter & Co
Off for IE 11 and old Edge: what you need to know
But IE 11 still lives on a little bit
However, Internet Explorer 11 is still not completely dead. Like an undead in a zombie film, IE is still alive a little bit, as Microsoft writes in its FAQ. Anyone who is actually still using Windows 8.1 should be able to continue using Internet Explorer. The same applies to users of Windows 7 as part of the paid extended support for companies (Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU). And for app developers who embed web content via the MSHTML (Trident) engine, the app stays separate from IE11 -Shutdown unaffected and still supported, Microsoft says.
IE lives on even in the Edge
The Edge browser has long since succeeded Internet Explorer as Microsoft’s standard browser for Windows. An Internet Explorer mode can also be activated in Edge. Simply enter the following in the Edge address bar:
edge://settings/defaultbrowser
. Then select the setting “Allow” under “Allow websites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode” and then restart Edge. Microsoft promises to support IE mode in late 2029 at least.
This allows you to run certain software and websites that actually only run in Internet Explorer. In practice, however, this should only be of interest to corporate customers who have to use specially programmed and very old corporate software.
