Sticking with IE10 or older can lock you out of Windows security updates

Microsoft issued a warning that web users refusing to update to Internet Explorer 11 might be locked out of some future security updates. The Inquirer specifies that not upgrading IE may make it impossible to get Threshold 2 (Windows 10 November Update) or even some potentially vital security patches.

Internet Explorer 11 is the end of the line for Microsoft's old browser. The final version of IE will continue to be supported until the end-of-life date of Windows 10, but consumers are expected to upgrade to Edge (or Chrome, Firefox, etc).

IE has been included with Windows 10 specifically for compatibility reasons aimed squarely at web apps that rely on plug-ins such as ActiveX controls which are not available in Edge.

Instead, the company has added various compatibility mode add-ons to IE 11 and has warned that it will stop supporting earlier versions of the browser on 12 January 2016, after which time only the most recent version will receive security updates and backwards compatibility improvements.

Microsoft has, however, assured customers that IE has a future, at least in the medium term, saying: "IE 11 is the last major version of IE, and will continue to be supported for the life of the operating system on which it is installed, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10."