It's been a long time coming, but it appears the proverbial bell is finally tolling for Internet Explorer. With Microsoft's new browser Edge having taken up the torch in 2015, things have been gradually winding down for the application, and the big final step is set to come soon.

Microsoft's aged web browser has been a staple, welcome or not, on Windows PCs for over two decades. While 1995 was an impressive year for video games, with the release of such gems as Chrono Trigger, the original Rayman, and the US port of cult hit Earthbound, meanwhile over on the aptly-named Windows 95 operating system a web-browsing star was born. Internet Explorer stuck around for over 25 years despite being eclipsed by the more secure and feature-rich Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, but it's only now that the final nail in its coffin is being hammered in.

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In a blog post this week, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer would be discontinued next year. "The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10," wrote Sean Lyndersay on the official Windows blog.

The winding-down of the service will begin even earlier, however: from August 17 of this year, Microsoft 365 and its associated services will end support for IE, while Microsoft Teams has already done so as of last November. Organizations who have become reliant on IE-based apps, however, will have some more time to adjust, with the IE mode for Edge being supported through 2029.

xbox keyboard support

It's undeniably the end of an era, but the writing has been on the wall for some time. Even on its best days, Microsoft's much-maligned browser was notorious for its security issues and vulnerabilities, and since its release in 2013 Internet Explorer 11 has only been receiving monthly security updates, unlike Edge (and other browsers, for that matter). It's been a long-running joke that the only reason to use Internet Explorer for some years has been to download a better browser, and that's reflected in the application's estimated market share: PC Gamer pegs it at between 1 and 5%.

It appears the company is now pinning all its web-browsing hopes on IE's younger counterpart, Edge. The browser app made its way to Xbox this year, along with full keyboard and mouse support, opening some potentially innovative avenues combining gaming and web-browsing.

Still, it's with mixed emotions that many PC users will be bidding farewell to Internet Explorer. Microsoft Edge might be able to play pirated Nintendo games, but IE will have a special place in the hearts of many, warts and all. Hopefully, the troubled browser will be able to find some peace in its eternal rest.

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Source: Microsoft, PC Gamer