Microsoft officially ended support for its Internet Explorer browser today, and in the coming months, you can expect IE to be removed from your Windows 10 PC with an OS update.
Microsoft mentioned the plan in a Wednesday blog post. “Eventually, Internet Explorer will be disabled permanently as part of a future Windows Update, at which point the Internet Explorer icons on users’ devices will be removed,” the company wrote.
Redmond is pushing users to swap IE for Microsoft Edge, which is designed to be faster and more secure. The same browser also includes an “IE mode” for those who need to visit older websites that only support Internet Explorer.
If you do try to access Internet Explorer today, the app should fail to open and trigger an Edge browser session to automatically start up.
“Over the next few months, opening Internet Explorer will progressively redirect users to our new modern browser, Microsoft Edge with IE mode,” the company says. “Users will still see the Internet Explorer icon on their devices (such as on the taskbar or in the Start menu) but if they click to open Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge will open instead with easy access to IE mode.”
During the redirec process, users can also automatically import their favorites, passwords, and settings from Internet Explorer to Edge.
The upcoming change will mainly affect consumers on Windows 10, which continued to bundle Internet Explorer. If you’re on Windows 11, then you’re already a step ahead since the new OS doesn’t come with the old browser. Instead, it features Microsoft Edge with IE mode in the upper-right corner of the browser.
The IE mode button is designed to make it easy access old websites on the fly. “Microsoft Edge will even ask them (the user) if they’d like the page to open in IE mode next time automatically!” the company added. “Microsoft Edge will check in with the user every 30 days to make sure they still need IE mode for the site. As more and more sites get updated to modern standards, users will need to use IE mode less and the modern rendering engine more.”
"And of course, we have committed to supporting IE mode in Microsoft Edge through at least 2029," Microsoft added.