On June 15, 2022, Internet Explorer (IE) was officially retired and out of support.
At one point, IE was the most commonly used web browser. However, with the rise of competitors like Chrome and Safari, along with IE’s regularly failing to adhere to the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines, rare updates, security issues, and lack of marketing, the browser’s over 25 year existence has come to an end.
Because of IE’s shortcomings, Microsoft replaced it in 2015 with the Edge browser, which is designed for today’s internet as it provided a faster, more secure, more modern browsing experience, and was also more compatible with different websites and applications.
So what happens now if you are still using Internet Explorer?
For the next few months, when a user opens IE, they will be redirected to Microsoft Edge with IE mode. The Internet Explorer icon will still be displayed on their devices as normal, but when a user clicks to open IE, it will instead open Microsoft Edge in IE mode. However, a future Windows update will permanently disable IE, and at that time the IE icons will be deleted as well. To help with the transition in the meantime, user data such as settings, passwords, and favorites will be imported from IE to Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft Edge with IE mode was built due to the fact that some websites only work with IE and do not function correctly on other browsers. If a user tries visit a website that doesn’t work properly or if the website asks them to open it using IE, they can click on the “Reload in IE mode” button. Microsoft has committed to supporting Microsoft Edge with IE mode through at least 2029.
The best and easiest thing to do is to go ahead and start using Microsoft Edge instead of waiting to be redirected. In Windows, Microsoft Edge can be opened from the start menu or the Edge icon on the desktop or taskbar.
If you need help importing your data from IE, follow the steps provided in this video. You can also contact us if you have any questions or need additional help.
