Microsoft ready to pull the plug on IE in 2022

Phasing out old technology is often a very lengthy process. Adobe's Flash plug-in is a great example, it was very popular in the early 2000s but quickly turned into a security nightmare. Despite not being actively supported anymore, and years of active discouragement, some organizations still use Flash to this day. Another example of a technology that is hard to kill is Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

It was once the browser used by the majority of web users, and sadly a lot of legacy applications still rely on Internet Explorer. Microsoft rolled out its first Edge browser in 2015 and switched to the Chromium engine at the start of 2020. Now the software giant is outlining the final days of Internet Explorer.

Via a blog post, Microsoft reveals Internet Explorer 11 will be retired on June 15, 2022:

Over the last year, you may have noticed our movement away from Internet Explorer (“IE”) support, such as an announcement of the end of IE support by Microsoft 365 online services. Today, we are at the next stage of that journey: we are announcing that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge. Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications. Microsoft Edge has Internet Explorer mode (“IE mode”) built in, so you can access those legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and applications straight from Microsoft Edge. With Microsoft Edge capable of assuming this responsibility and more, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10. -- Microsoft