14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will pull the plug on old Internet Explorer versions in January, but with millions of users who are yet to update their browsers, the company is preparing for a more aggressive campaign that would make everyone aware of the approaching milestone.
Starting January 12, the date when support for older Internet Explorer versions is coming to an end, Microsoft will begin nagging users to update their browsers on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
An advisory published this week (first spotted by @rodtrent) and called “The new ‘End of Life’ upgrade notification for Internet Explorer” reveals that Microsoft will ship a cumulative security update on January 12 for the aforementioned two OS versions, in both 32- and 64-bit versions, in order to remind users to install the latest version of the company’s browser.
All in on Internet Explorer 11
Internet Explorer 11 will be the only version of Microsoft’s browser that will continue to be supported, so older releases will no longer get patches and security updates on Windows 7.
IE11 is available via Windows Update on Windows 7 computers and is the default version on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, with the latter also coming with Edge browser, the new application developed by Microsoft specifically for this OS version.
On Windows Vista, because updating to Internet Explorer 11 is not possible, IE9 will continue to be supported for a little longer, but with EOS approaching for this OS version too, everyone is recommended to upgrade to a newer release as soon as possible.
Obviously, if you don’t want to install Internet Explorer 11, there’s always the option of turning to a third-party browser, such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Firefox has just arrived with a 64-bit version on Windows, so there’s no better time to give up on Internet Explorer and start using Mozilla’s own browser.