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Microsoft Tries to Retire Internet Explorer 11 By Pulling Microsoft 365 Support

The old browser is still used among enterprises with legacy systems. Nevertheless, Microsoft wants to push business customers to consider other alternatives, specifically the new Microsoft Edge browser.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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Surprisingly, Internet Explorer 11 isn't dead yet. But Microsoft is trying to phase out its use. On Monday, the company announced that Microsoft 365 office applications will eventually no longer run over the old browser. 

Redmond will begin sunsetting the support starting on Nov. 30 with the Microsoft Teams app, the company’s video conferencing and chat solution. All remaining Microsoft 365 support will then be terminated a year from now on August 17, 2021.

“This means that after the above dates, customers will have a degraded experience or will be unable to connect to Microsoft 365 apps and services on IE 11,” the company wrote in a blog post. “For degraded experiences, new Microsoft 365 features will not be available or certain features may cease to work when accessing the app or service via IE 11.”

The transition probably won’t affect most consumers. Currently, Internet Explorer only has a 5.8 percent market share of the PC browser market. Google’s Chrome, meanwhile, dominates the sector with a near 69 percent share. 

Internet Explorer has also suffered from its share of serious vulnerabilities over the years, so you’re better off not touching it all. Nevertheless, the browser still gets used in the IT office world, particularly among enterprises, healthcare providers and government agencies still stuck on aging computer systems. In some cases, these systems and their apps can only be accessed over Internet Explorer.  

As a result, Microsoft is well aware the transition away from Internet Explorer may annoy some business customers. However, the company has a solution in mind: It’s telling customers to try out the new Microsoft Edge, which has adopted Google’s Chromium engine for better load times. 

In addition, Edge has a special “IE mode,” which uses the old rendering engine in Internet Explorer 11, to load up sites. So it should work with any legacy applications. “Customers don’t need an awkward workaround of one browser for some apps and another for other apps. They can standardize on one browser and seamlessly experience the best of the modern web in one tab while accessing a business-critical legacy IE 11 app in another tab,” the company wrote. 

Still, Microsoft isn't completely abandoning Internet Explorer 11 (at least not yet). The company plans on pushing updates for the old browser for customers on Windows 10 until 2025, according to Microsoft's product lifecycle timeline. 

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“We want to be clear that IE 11 isn’t going away and that our customers’ own legacy IE 11 apps and investments will continue to work,” the company added. “Customers have made business-critical investments in IE 11 legacy apps and we respect that those apps are still functioning.”


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About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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