For more than 25 years Internet Explorer has helped web users view the web at large, and now Microsoft has announced that they are finally ending support for the legacy browser. At several points in IE's lifespan it carried the distinguished title as the world's most prominently used web browser. IE competed head-to-head with other notable browsers included Netscape, Firefox, and eventually Google Chrome before Microsoft signalled with the 2015 launch of Windows 10 that it would eventually sunset Internet Explorer.
Microsoft's Edge browser is the heir apparent for Windows users to continue on with, as Microsoft has used Edge in recent years to help phase out Internet Explorer by promoting Edge usage with Windows users over Internet Explorer.
Edge is marketted as a more secure and modern browser than IE and could be considered a direct competitor to Google's Chrome web browser, as well as Firefox. Microsoft Edge also offers "IE Mode", which allows users to access legacy Internet Explorer based websites with a similar experience to what was available in IE. This feature is likely the reason Microsoft was finally able to say goodbye to IE by providing an alternative for legacy users and not risk impacting user experience.
Internet Explorer will officially be out-of-support on June 15, 2022. You can read more about the announcement
here on the Microsoft blog.
In the 15 years that Bots vs Browsers has been studying user agents, we've cataloged nearly 1 million variations of Internet Explorer in the wild. IE was one of the few browsing options available back in 2006 when we got started, and was a big part of our journey in the early days - RIP MSIE!