Users will need at least Internet Explorer 8 to install the add-on

Apr 30, 2014 05:48 GMT  ·  By

Now that Microsoft no longer supports old versions of Internet Explorer and Windows XP, software developers across the world abandon these solutions one by one and today it's Adblock's turn to give up on them.

Starting with the next release, Adblock Plus, the browser add-on that removes advertisements and contributes to a cleaner browsing experience no matter the website, today announced that Internet Explorer 6 and 7 are no longer supported, which means that users will need at least Internet Explorer 8 to install the add-on.

At the same time, the developing team behind the project said that tweaks made to its website in order to work on Internet Explorer 6 will also be removed, so you won't be capable of loading the page anymore if you don't switch to another browser.

“So far, Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer has been supporting every version Internet Explorer version still in use — including Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. This not only complicated development of Adblock Plus, our website and infrastructure had to support Internet Explorer 6 as well,” the team explained in a blog post rolled out this morning.

“This meant for example continuing to support the outdated SSLv3 protocol because the more secure TLS 1.0 protocol is turned off by default in Internet Explorer 6. After reviewing the current market share of Internet Explorer 6 and 7 we’ve decided that we should stop supporting them.”

At the same time, SSLv3 protocol will also be disabled from Adblock servers, so those running Internet Explorer 6 won't be able to connect unless they manually enable TLS 1.0.

That doesn't necessarily mean that Adblock Plus will no longer work on Windows XP, developers explained, because you still have the option to deploy it on the operating system launched nearly 13 years ago. The only thing that you need to do is to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, a newer version of the browser that also works on Windows XP.

Of course, as you probably know already if you're an Adblock Plus user, the browser add-on also works on the majority of Internet Explorer rivals on the market, including Firefox and Chrome. So Windows XP users always have the option to give up on Internet Explorer completely and go for a browser that still receives updates from their parent companies. Both Firefox and Chrome will continue to be updated on Windows XP for at least 12 more months.