Internet Explorer Is Dead—It's the End of an Era

Microsoft has officially retired IE, marking the end of a 26 year era for the once dominant web browser. The seven users who are still using Internet Explorer will be directed to Microsoft's Edge browser. There is a prompt to use Edge now that support for IE is over. The blue "e" will be disabled in a Windows update.

Most users won't notice the difference unless they feel like a key part of our digital past has changed. The first version of Internet Explorer arrived in 1995 as an add-on. IE rose to fame after defeating Netscape in the browser wars before reaching a peak market share.

The browser has been kind to other things in the past. When the simple and fast Google Chrome entered the market, Internet Explorer lost favor with users because it was not up to par with international web standards. As recently as 2009, IE had a market share of more than 70%, but it is now less than 1%. It became a punching bag for jokes. The integration of Microsoft Edge into Windows 10 was a pivot away from internet explorer. Explorer would still be supported for legacy users.

Edge failed to steal market share away from Chrome in an instant. Microsoft kept IE alive for people who weren't comfortable with the switch. Microsoft had a winning replacement when the old Edge was replaced by the new Edge.

Some businesses still use the browser for access to critical information even though IE is no longer relevant. Government agencies, financial institutions, and manufacturing and logistics companies in Japan that operate websites that only run on IE are now desperately looking for help to port over to a modern browser. According to a March survey from IT company Keyman's Net, almost half of the people who work in Japan use IE for work.

The impact the shuttered browser had on the internet and those who used it growing up in the early 2000s is not lost on those who use the new Edge browser. As people remember the browser for both its influence and flaws, social media is flooded with grievances.

Internet Explorer will live on through this decade despite the browser's demise. Microsoft Edge will allow users and companies to access legacy sites through the new Edge browser, which will be powered by the TridentMSHTML engine. The logo is still in the navigation bar when a site loads in IE mode. IE will be supported in Edge through 2029.