Microsoft Announces Plans to retire its Internet Explorer

Microsoft has announced that its Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will finally be retired next year after more than 26 years of service.

The web browser that was released alongside Windows 95 will no longer appear on consumer versions of Windows 10 after June 2022.

Microsoft had had to issue an emergency patch for the web browser in 2019 for security reasons. At that point it was estimated that around 8% of people were still using it.

The company plans to replace the web browser with Microsoft Edge. The new browser has an Internet Explorer compatibility mode and will function for users.

In a blog, Microsoft Edge programme manager Sean Lyndersay wrote that the newer browser will give users a faster, more secure and modern browsing experience, and the new browser is also able to handle older applications.

In a separate post dealing with questions, Microsoft clarified that there would be some exceptions to the retirement, including on older versions of Windows.

Between 2000 and 2005, Internet Explorer enjoyed a 90% market share until in 2013 Microsoft was fined €561m ($731m; £484m at the time) for failing to promote alternative browsers within its Windows operating system.

It had introduced a “browser choice” pop-up in 2010, but the feature was dropped in an update the following year. Microsoft said this had happened by mistake.

In April Microsoft announced that it is planning to change its default font, which has been Calibri across all of its products since 2007,and is inviting users to vote on their favourite from five contenders, and says the most popular will form its new look.