Microsoft Corp. President Bill Gates announces a new version of Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows XP and that Microsoft would include Windows AntiSpyware technology at no additional cost during his keynote address at the 2005 RSA Conference in San Francisco. Tuesday, February 15, 2005. The two new enhancements will lead to safer web browsing according to Gates.
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Microsoft stopped supporting the Internet Explorer web browser on Wednesday, saying the end is near a 26-year mark with luggage that includes an antitrust case, security flaws and delayed performance. Instead, users will sign up for Microsoft’s latest Edge browser.
Although Microsoft does not earn revenue directly from browsers, Edge uses the company’s Bing search engine by default, through which the software and hardware manufacturer generates advertising revenue. This category accounts for about 6% of Microsoft’s total revenue, with nearly $ 3 billion in the first quarter.
Microsoft will not offer technical support or security updates to customers, as it focuses more on Edge, a browser that is available on mobile devices, Macs, and even Linux, rather than just Windows. Microsoft launched Edge as part of Windows 10 in 2015, to exist alongside Internet Explorer as something new and efficient but similar to what Windows users already knew.
Internet Explorer still has a small group of devotees, however, in part because it is still the only way to reach certain corporate web applications. He will not be gone yet, though he is retiring.
“Over the next few months, the opening of Internet Explorer will gradually redirect users to our new modern browser, Microsoft Edge with IE mode,” wrote Sean Lyndersay, the company’s CEO, in a blog post. “Users will still see the Internet Explorer icon on their devices (such as on the taskbar or the Start menu), but if they click to open Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge will open with easy access to IE mode. “Internet Explorer will be permanently disabled as part of a future Windows update, at which point Internet Explorer icons will be removed from your devices”.
An “IE mode reload” button will appear on the Edge toolbar, and the browser will ask people if they’d like to open a page in IE mode next time, Lyndersay wrote.
“Microsoft Edge will also check with the user every 30 days to make sure they still need IE mode for the site,” he wrote. “As more and more sites are upgraded to modern standards, users will have to use less IE mode and more modern rendering engine.”
A brief history of Internet Explorer
In 1995, the web quickly became a high priority for Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said in a statement that web development would “mark the course of our industry for a long time.” Microsoft included Internet Explorer in the Windows 95 operating system for free. It caught on pretty quickly.
Internet Explorer took the lead in the market share of browsers thanks to its inclusion in Windows, the world’s most widely used PC operating system. The strategy helped Microsoft undermine Netscape Communications’ then-emerging Navigator browser.
When the U.S. Department of Justice filed its historic antitrust case against Microsoft in 1998, the federal agency described the merger of Internet Explorer into Windows 95 as an “illegal link.” The company changed the terms of its agreements with device manufacturers to allow them to remove Windows browser icons if they want to display other browsers.
Other issues also damage the reputation of Internet Explorer. A security expert said in 2004 that it was “nonsense” to use a browser. The Washington Post published an article entitled “Internet Explorer is not secure for 284 days in 2006”. In 2014, following the disclosure of a defect, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said those who can’t follow Microsoft’s advice for mitigation should consider using another browser.
Internet Explorer did not always offer the best performance. Chrome’s speed particularly impressed observers when it appeared in 2008. This was by design. When Google set the values for Chrome, it chose three S’s: speed, stability, and security, said Aaron Boodman, a former Chrome engineering manager.
The performance difference with Internet Explorer is clear to this day. Its handling of the widely used HTML5 markup language can’t keep up with Apple’s Chrome, Edge, or Safari.
Digital preferences have changed over a quarter of a century. The smartphone became a companion to billions of people, and in 2012 Google took the lead in browser wars with Chrome.
In 2020, Microsoft released a new version of Edge based on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser, and included Internet Explorer mode, which allowed corporate employees to access websites designed for Internet Explorer on Edge. Last year, Microsoft advised consumers to switch from Internet Explorer to Edge. The company is now further reducing the presence of its original browser.
Microsoft now wants to make sure that people who still use Internet Explorer will move to Edge, which has about a 4% share, according to privately owned StatCounter data. The company will move bookmarks, passwords, and Internet Explorer settings to Edge, Lyndersay wrote. Edge is, he said, “the best browser for Windows.”
LOOK: Say goodbye to Internet Explorer