Microsoft Retires Internet Explorer-The End of the Biggest Internet Joke.

Microsoft is ready to say goodbye to its web browser Internet Explorer, following an announcement the company made in 2021. Their newest browser, Microsoft Edge which was released in 2015, will instead take its place as the main browser for some versions of Windows 10 starting from June 15 2022. According to Microsoft, this is because, Microsoft Edge has “a faster, more secure and more modern web experience than Internet Explorer”.

According to Microsoft, there will be two phases concerning the replacement;
The first phase, also called the Redirection Phase involves a process whereby after June 15, over the course of a few months, devices will be redirected from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Word. The redirection won’t take place on all devices at once; this is to ensure that there is minimization or prevention of disruption of the businesses of organizations by giving them enough time to identify and resolve any issue.

The second phase called the Windows Update phase which involves updating all devices after Internet Explorer is permanently disabled. However, the inbuilt Internet Explorer mode (I.E mode) for developers will be maintained on older versions such as Windows 8.1, Windows 7 extended security updates and limited versions of Windows 10.

As stated earlier, Internet Explorer was introduced in 1995 after which it grew in popularity a few years later, going as far as to rule over 95% of the market. Unfortunately, in more recent years, with the introduction of other web browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox, which were faster and much more reliable, its popularity began to dwindle amongst users. it became the butt of all jokes over the last decade, calling it the slowest browser on the market.

Another contribution to its downfall was the popularity of smartphones; in an era where phones are becoming easier to handle and more functional, the faster web browsers are inbuilt into the smartphones, allowing users easier access while Internet Explorer was too slow to catch up to.

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