Microsoft goes off Internet Explorer after 27 years

Microsoft is finally discontinuing the consumer version of Internet Explorer.

Microsoft announced the plan last year, making Internet Explorer 11 its final version. Internet Explorer first appeared on Windows desktops in 1995 and by 2004 it captured 95% of the market. But now Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox dominate. Users who want to stick with Microsoft are turning to Microsoft Edge, which was released in 2015, alongside Windows 10.

Internet Explorer’s popularity waned with the release of faster browsers like Chrome and Firefox,

As users took advantage of new apps to navigate across platforms like Google Search, Facebook and YouTube.

‘Tidal wave’

Edge maintains a built-in “IE Mode” for developers and those looking for access to legacy applications. The company says that access to your old desktop browser will be preserved in earlier versions of Windows, including Windows 8.1, Windows 7 Extended Security Updates, and limited editions of Windows 10. The legacy of Internet Explorer will surely continue after its retirement, as it has been pre-installed on Windows PCs for more than two decades.

In 1995, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that the release of Windows 95, and with it Internet Explorer, would be part of the tech giant’s effort to ride the “Internet wave.” While his vision of a “small computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft programs” may now seem reminiscent of an ancient era of dial-up Internet access, Internet Explorer will be remembered as one of the key tools that shaped the way the Internet is used and accessed today.