14 DAY TRIAL // After the launch of the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, the Redmond-based software giant has three different browsers available in Windows.
Internet Explorer, the legacy version of Microsoft Edge (also referred to as Project Spartan), and this Chromium-powered Edge, all are part of the Windows experience, old and new.
On the other hand, it’s not a secret that Microsoft sees the new Edge as the only way to go in the long term, so now the company is insisting for everybody to give it a try.
This is how the software giant turned to some questionable tactics, offering the updated browser as the new default option on Windows 10 and replacing the legacy Edge for everybody via Windows Update.
While many considered this to be a forced update, Microsoft also offered tools to block the update, but at the end of the day, it’s pretty clear that only the Chromium Edge is part of its browser vision in the long run.
And this approach makes both Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge legacy two browsers that sooner or later should get the ax. And this makes total sense, especially since Microsoft has struggled to implement the best feature of both of them in the new Edge.
We’ve known for a while that Edge and IE11 would be killed off at one point, but it was pretty clear the whole thing couldn’t happen in a different way than gradually. And now Microsoft is finally sharing more details on how it plans to retire its old browsers.
The demise of Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge legacy comes down to three important milestones:
- November 30, 2020: Microsoft Teams stops supporting IE11
- March 9, 2021: Microsoft Edge legacy end of life
- August 17, 2021: Microsoft 365 stops supporting IE11
To be clear, Internet Explorer 11 would still continue to be live after August 17, 2021, only that it would no longer be supported on Microsoft services.
On the other hand, March 9 is the day when Edge legacy would just go dark once and for all, with no other updates and security patches to be shipped after this date.
“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. 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. While we know this change will be difficult for some customers, we believe that customers will get the most out of Microsoft 365 when using the new Microsoft Edge. We are committed to helping make this transition as smooth as possible,” Microsoft explains.
“By the dates listed above, customers should no longer access Microsoft 365 apps and services using IE 11, but 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. Customers have made business-critical investments in IE 11 legacy apps and we respect that those apps are still functioning.”
Is there anything you can do right now to prepare for this switch? Just upgrade to the new Chromium-powered Edge and you should be just fine, as this is obviously the browser of choice for Microsoft going forward.
On the other hand, if you’re still running Internet Explorer as your daily browser, there are many other things to be worried about besides the approaching demise, as this is an outdated application that lacks the modern functionality of a modern browser.