You may receive flowers, chocolates or heart-shaped gifts today, but Microsoft delivers an arrow straight to the heart of Internet Explorer. The software giant is retiring Internet Explorer today, permanently disabling the browser through a Microsoft Edge update on most versions of Windows 10.
Microsoft officially Internet Explorer retired in June last year, removing it in favor of Microsoft Edge, with support for IE 11 officially dropped. But today’s update to Microsoft Edge will ensure that you can no longer launch Internet Explorer 11 on most client versions of Windows 10. There are a few exceptions, including Microsoft’s Long Term Servicing Channel for Windows 10 and versions such as Windows 10 China Government Edition, but for everyone else, IE 11 is in disappearing today.
The underlying technology that powers Internet Explorer, the MSHTML engine and Trident, will continue to be supported, however. Microsoft moved to its default Chromium-powered Edge browser in Windows 11, but the MSHTML engine is still part of Windows 11. It exists to power IE mode in Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft says it will support IE mode in Edge until minus 2029.
Microsoft has been trying to remove Internet Explorer for almost 8 years now. The software maker moved away from the Internet Explorer brand with the Windows 10 release in 2015, and created a IE mode for Edge in 2019. Microsoft has also tried to block people from using Internet Explorer in recent years, calling it a “compatibility solution” for businesses, rather than a browser for everyday use.