On June 15, 2022, the 27-year-old web browser Internet Explorer officially shut down, sparking a wave of '90s nostalgia online. Since its introduction in 1995, Internet Explorer has been ubiquitous in homes and workplaces alike, with countless systems, including some government sites, requiring the browser to function.
"Rest in peace, Internet Explorer," Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab tweeted. "You'll be missed. We feel old."
Internet Explorer wasn't the first browser, but it did come to be the most common for a time. The browser was also notorious for being slow, and users had less cybersecurity protection than that found on more modern browsers. In May 2021, Microsoft
Up until days before the shutdown, TechRadar says that millions of Microsoft users still hadn't switched over from the old browser to Microsoft's Edge, the browser that the company will support from now on. According to a report from Lansweeper, nearly half of all Windows 10 devices had yet to update to Edge as of June 14.
If users attempt to access Internet Explorer from now on, they'll be redirected to Edge's "IE mode", Microsoft Edge Enterprise general manager Sean Lyndersay wrote in a blog, referring to Edge as "faster, more secure and more modern".
"Eventually, Internet Explorer will be disabled permanently as a part of a future Windows update, at which point the Internet Explorer icons on users' devices will be removed," Lyndersay wrote.
In the '90s, Microsoft battled with the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) over antitrust allegations regarding the bundling of Windows and Internet Explorer. By 2001, the DOJ had stopped pushing for the tech giant to split between the two products. Since then, Windows users have increasingly opted to use non-Microsoft browsers like Google Chrome
However, one group that has stayed loyal to Internet Explorer is small businesses, and many of those businesses are not prepared to transition to a new browser, despite the fact that Microsoft has been practically begging Internet Explorer users to switch for months. The report from Lansweeper stated that the most common operating system being run on corporate devices is from 2004, three versions behind the current Windows 11, making it even more difficult to move to Edge.
"There could be many reasons for organizations to delay upgrading," said Chief Strategy Officer at Lansweeper, Roel Decneut, "including being more conservative, having more pressing issues to deal with, or simply having no visibility into the version of operating systems they're running. Organizations will need an overview of each device they own when Internet Explorer 11 support finally ends. Without this data, they'll remain vulnerable."
