It was the first web browser for millions of people, but today, after 27 long years, Microsoft no longer supports Internet Explorer.
It is a long-delayed retirement. Even when the company had previously planned to remove the support last August, its use had been reduced to a fraction of what it was before.
Anyone now trying to use the desktop application will find it disabled and unsupported and will be automatically redirected to the Microsoft Edge browser.
For some, the browser inspires nostalgia, and for many more it causes memories of slow-loading pages, errors, crashes, and frustrations.
It was launched in 1995 and, when combined with Microsoft’s Windows operating system, quickly became the most used browser on the web with a 95% share in 2003.
But as web functionality developed with video streaming and other services, Internet Explorer, despite upgrades, lagged behind rivals such as Mozilla Firefox in 2004 and Google Chrome in 2008.
Microsoft’s successor browser, Edge, which the company announced would replace Internet Explorer in 2015, is included with Windows and today is used by about 4% of all web traffic.
The following year, Internet Explorer was dethroned as the most-used browser with Chrome in the top spot, which it has maintained ever since.
This is partly due to the fact that mobile browsing dominates the web. Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari browser have been successful with approximately 65% and 20% market share, respectively.
This market share has caused problems for both companies.
In 2018, Google was fined € 4.34 billion (£ 3.8 billion) for forcing phone manufacturers to pre-install applications such as Google Search and Chrome to the exclusion of other search engines and web browsers.
Microsoft had a similar mess with the U.S. Department of Justice toward the turn of the millennium, fighting a lawsuit in 1997 – and resolving it in 2002 – alleging that it used its monopoly on Windows to drive out your competitors.
Microsoft says the Edge is “a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer,” as well as one that still supports “old websites and applications.”