14 DAY TRIAL // Internet Explorer might be a dead browser, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s dead.
Microsoft is all about Microsoft Edge these days, with Internet Explorer still offered in Windows 10 for compatibility reasons. The company, however, recommends against using it as a daily browser, and instead directs users to Microsoft Edge (which will soon be overhauled with a Chromium-powered version).
Internet Explorer, however, keeps running smoothly on Windows 10, and I’m not talking only about the latest version.
In fact, an experiment conducted a reddit, and which I confirm it’s accurate, proves that Internet Explorer 2.0, a version that was released more than 24 years ago, still runs on Windows 10 natively without the need for any other tweaks.
Backwards compatibility pushed to a new level
While Microsoft has previously praised backwards compatibility on several occasions, Internet Explorer 2.0 running natively on Windows 10 is without a doubt unexpected, especially given how many years have passed since launch.
I installed a Polish version of IE 2.0 on a Windows 10 test system and I can confirm this works natively without the need for any other modifications. Loading websites, however, isn’t possible given the browser is no longer supported and other technologies have been released in the meantime, but Internet Explorer 2.0 installs and runs just fine.
Backwards compatibility is actually a key feature of both old and new Windows, and this new living proof comes just at the right time.
Microsoft will retire Windows 7 next week, and the software giant now encourages users to make the switch to Windows 10. The company says 99% of the apps built for Windows 7 work flawlessly on Windows 10 as well, and judging from this experiment, there’s no reason to dispute this claim.
Windows 7 was officially launched in 2009, so it’s already more than ten years old.