Microsoft to pull the plug on Internet Explorer in June, next year

Microsoft has decided to discontinue its original Internet browser, Internet Explorer. The application for Internet Explorer will be "retired" on June 15th, 2022, after a life span of more than 25 years, and it will not obtain funding from the firm.

Sean Lyndersay, a Microsoft Edge program manager said, “We are announcing that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge,” he further added, “The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10.”

Instead, users are being encouraged to switch to Microsoft Edge, which includes built-in support for Internet Explorer-based websites. It was vouched by Lyndersay as “faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer”. He said, “It is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications."

Last year, Microsoft revealed that the Microsoft Teams web app would cease running on Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) on November 30th. Furthermore, Microsoft 365 services such as Outlook and OneDrive will also cease linking to IE11 on August 17th, 2021.

Although Internet Explorer will be supported in the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) of Windows 10 next year, it will be phased out of all consumer models. While Microsoft does not say so, it's possible that Internet Explorer will be phased out of Windows either in June 2022 or shortly thereafter.

For even more than five years, Microsoft has been attempting to discourage users from using Internet Explorer. In 2015, Microsoft Edge was released, signalling the end of the Internet Explorer brand. Since then, Microsoft has referred to Internet Explorer as a "compatibility solution" instead of a browser and has urged companies to abandon it in favour of Edge and its IE mode.