Internet Explorer 11 reaches end-of-life (EOL) on June 15, 2022

[German]Another short information for the blog readers, who may still have the Internet Explorer 11 from Microsoft under Windows in use. On today's patchday, June 14, 2022, the browser will receive security updates for various Windows versions for the last time and will then be removed from support (on June 15, 2022).

Ihave already become aware of this fact the days, e.g. via the following tweet. Microsoft has published the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application ending support for certain operating systems.

The Microsoft page in question states that Internet Explorer (IE) 11 will no longer be supported as a desktop application on certain versions of Windows 10 starting June 15, 2022. Microsoft had already announced this in May 2021 in this post, and confirmed the exceptions there. 

This retirement does not affect in-market Windows 10 LTSC or Server Internet Explorer 11 desktop applications. It also does not affect the MSHTML (Trident) engine. For a full list of what is in scope for this announcement, and for other technical questions, please see our FAQ.

So the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC versions are not affected by this end of support any more than the Windows Server versions. In addition, the Trident engine (MSHTML) remains in Windows, so the IE functions are still available internally for displaying certain content. In this FAQ, Microsoft details it all in more detail, and indicates where IE 11 support will continue to be provided.

Edge replaces IE 11

The Microsoft Edge browser has, after all, been slated as a replacement for the aging Internet Explorer 11 for quite some time. Back in 2020, Microsoft discontinued IE 11 support for Microsoft accounts and apps, as I reported in the blog post Internet Explorer: No more support for Microsoft accounts and apps. Microsoft's Chromium Edge will take over Internet Explorer's duties with its IE Legacy Mode. The Edge IE 11 Legacy Mode is intended to allow administrators to provide IE 11 features to users who still rely on it for certain web content.

For example, how to use Edge via IE 11 legacy mode to import updates in WSUS without IE, I had outlined a long time ago in the blog post How-To: Import OOB Updates in WSUS without IE, but with Microsoft Edge skizziert.

A report from Lansweeper states that 47% of enterprises are affected by the IE 11 EOL (via).

It's been a long journey with Internet Explorer

Finally, a few remarks about Internet Explorer – because this piece of software has now been available since 27 years (nearly as long as I am self-employed as an IT writer). IE was announced by Microsoft on August 24, 1995 (the colleagues at Bleeping Computer picked up this cache version of an article by Sandy Hardmeier from 2005, so on the 10th anniversary). 

I just had a look in my book shelf, in the Annals of the Titans. My first work where IE featured more heavily was published in early 1997 – so I wrote it in 1996. The German title "Publizieren im Internet und Intranet mit HTML 2.0/3.2" documented the differences (the whistles and bells)  in HTML tag support implemented at the time in the "browser war" between Microsoft and Netscape Navigator for HTML 2.0 and 3.2. Included on the CD at the time was a licensed version of Netscape Navigator – and I used IE 2.0 and later IE 3.0 for my tests. Then when Google Chrome came along in 2009, the browser theme shifted more to that platform – and Chrome now has the browser market. A hell of a long time – IE may well retire (and I'll have to look at whether that's a finger pointing for my own retirement). 

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