Microsoft has announced quite categorically that it will finally stop supporting its Internet Explorer browser next year.
Currently, many users have already abandoned Internet Explorer, which has lived more than quarter of a century, but the company plans to drive final nail in the coffin of the browser on June 15, 2022, as Microsoft will focus on Edge.
While the Windows 10 servicing model known as the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) will continue to include Internet Explorer next year, all custom versions will no longer support the browser. Microsoft has not yet clarified, but most likely the last time Internet Explorer will appear on Windows will be in June 2022 or a little later.
An alternative for corporate users will be Microsoft Edge with IE mode. IE mode in Edge was introduced a few years ago, and with it, users can access legacy sites through the new Chromium-based browser.
IE Mode supports legacy ActiveX frameworks and legacy sites and is very popular with many companies. Microsoft promises to support IE mode in Edge until at least 2029.
The end of the life cycle of Internet Explorer occurs in several stages. Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer 11 in the Microsoft Teams web app last year and plans to close its access to Microsoft 365 services this year. Internet Explorer 11 will no longer be supported by online services such as Office 365, OneDrive, Outlook, and more. from 17 August 2022.
Microsoft has been trying to convince users to abandon Internet Explorer for over five years. Microsoft Edge first appeared in 2015 and marked the beginning of the end of the Internet Explorer brand. Since then, the company has positioned IE not as a browser, but as a “compatibility solution,” and urged the company to ditch Internet Explorer in favour of Edge and IE mode.
Let me remind you that in January 2020, Microsoft reported a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer, which the attackers had already used for “limited targeted attacks.”
