The tech giant released a software update meant to permanently disable IE 11 on Windows 10.
Valentine’s Day is usually seen as a day for relationships, but for Microsoft and Internet Explorer 11, it was the day the break-up became official.
The end of the old browser hasn’t come as a surprise, as it announced the shutdown last year.
Since last year, Microsoft announced that it would be releasing a software update that would permanently disable the Internet Explorer 11 app in Windows 10. Instead of issuing an update for the operating system itself, the company decided to create an irreversible Microsoft Edge update. This will essentially kill the last of the old browser.
The browser is very old and hasn’t been supported since the summer of 2022, but there have been some people who have held out as long as possible, despite all the warnings about compatibility and the substantial security holes.
Microsoft originally planned to release a Windows update that would stop the old browser, but the decision was made to turn it into an irreversible Edge update instead. In December, Microsoft announced that “the change to use Microsoft Edge update to disable IE is intended to provide a better user experience and help organizations transition their last remaining IE11 users to Microsoft Edge.”
The company provided users with advance instructions for the elimination of their Internet Explorer.
Within the instructions, Microsoft explained that they would leave the Internet Explorer icons in place for a few more months, even though they became a visual reference for Edge following February 14, 2023. It is possible for users to remove those visual references to IE if they want, but they are being left in place for a reason.
While it would be easy to believe that the icons are being left in place as IE11 for a while for nostalgic reasons, particularly for users who have hung on this long, in truth, it’s meant to help ease the transition to Edge, leaving familiar access routes in place while users become accustomed to the edge app itself. That said, in June 2023, all visual references to Internet Explorer will also be removed, as all users will be assumed to be adequately transitioned to the new browsers and disruption will therefore be minimal.
