Microsoft shuts Internet Explorer

Introduction:

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer made it’s debut as a web browser on 17 August, 1995. In a cause that the internet became more popular in the 90s, Microsoft’s internet explorer was the most popular web browser. It was a reworked version of Spyglass mosaic. It came with the purchase of Windows 95 plus! And with at least some OEM versions of Windows 95.

There were less of functions of this web browser. It was required to have a manual installation to run on websites, and back then there weren’t too many websites. There are 11 versions of internet explorer till date.

Microsoft’s internet explorer 11 was released in October 2013. As time passed by, in late 90s, other Web browsers were released including Opera, Google Chrome and Safari. Internet explorer was replaced by Microsoft Edge with the release of Windows 10.

Microsoft Edge is the latest web browser developed by Microsoft. It was released in 2015 with the release of Windows 10.

It’s a built-in browser that replaced internet explorer. It has faster performance and improved features. It’s a complete reboot but still it lacks few main features which are provided by Chrome and Firefox.

Chrome and Firefox on the other hand lets you open tabs between different computers and sync bookmarks, so that you have access to the same information.

This feature is not available in Microsoft’s Edge. According to the browser market share Worldwide- July 2020, Edge still is the least used browser. Whereas Chrome is the most used browser with 65.89%, Safari 16.65%, Firefox 4.26%, Samsung internet browser 3.43%, Opera 2.05% and Edge 1.91%.

Drawbacks of Internet Explorer:

There were many drawbacks of using Internet explorer. Internet explorer has major security issues. It is easy for hackers to discover the security software you were using, which makes it more dangerous.

Internet explorer was built in web browser of Windows OS, still some people preferred to use Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or other web browsers.

Internet Explorer was slow compared to other web browsers so people preferred downloading other web browsers rather than using the built in internet explorer.

There were many reasons it slowed down, one of the reasons was too many add ons and extensions. Internet explorer was regularly updated by Microsoft but it had small updates that typically installed in background and addressed both security and speed.

With lack of features Microsoft’s internet explorer has become a topic of jokes trending on many Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts. The use of this browser had considerably declined after other free browser launched in market. The security issues of this browser had been one of the reasons for their downfall.

The Farewell:

After more than 20 years of Microsoft’s struggle of coping up with other competitors, they finally decided to bid farewell to Internet explorer. They Launched it on 17th August 1995 and M365 will stop supporting Internet explorer 11 on 17th August, 2021.

Microsoft’s decision to stop IE was announced on 17th August, 2020. They also announced that Microsoft’s team will stop supporting IE 11 from 30th November, 2020.

However, windows 10 will still support Internet explorer as the company has not yet revealed its complete shutdown. It will also put an end to Microsoft’s 265 apps by next year. It will also stop working on Microsoft’s products like Outlook, Office 365 and others. Microsoft’s Edge Legacy will also lose support on 9th March, 2021. It will no longer receive security updates after 9th March, 2021.

Microsoft has introduced a new Web browser named “Project Spartan.” It will be the new web browsing experience for Windows 10. It will feature rendering engine, it also features inking support and let the user sync all of those notes to OneDrive.

Cortana will also be integrated into Project Spartan. Project Spartan future looks bright compared to Microsoft’s IE. It has all updated features which are required in our day to day use of internet browser.

Hopefully ‘Project Spartan’ can stand up to its expectations and help Microsoft to once again regain its place in the market for introducing a faster and much updated, user-friendly web browser.