Internet Explorer: end of support for Microsoft Accounts and Apps in November
Microsoft is putting Internet Explorer slowly but steadily to rest. The company's Microsoft 365 team announced in August that it would phase out support for Internet Explorer 11 starting with the end of support of Microsoft Teams in Internet Explorer on November 30, 2020.
On August 17, 2021, Microsoft 365 will stop supporting Internet Explorer 11 in its entirety. The legacy version of Microsoft Edge reaches end of support on March 9, 2021, and that leaves the new Chromium-based browser, also called Microsoft Edge, as Microsoft's sole browser that it supports fully.
German blog Dr. Windows reports that Internet Explorer 11 will lose support for Microsoft Accounts and Microsoft Apps in November as well; the end of support comes in addition to the already announced end of support by the Microsoft 365 team. Microsoft has not published a public announcement that confirms the blog post, but the maintainer of the site is usually well informed.
According to the report, Microsoft is informing Enterprise customers currently about the upcoming end of support. It is unclear whether the support end affects only business customers of Microsoft or home customers as well; it is very likely that all customers are affected by the end of support.
End of support does not mean that Internet Explorer 11 users will see a "your browser is no longer supported" message when they open a site, app or service that does not support the browser anymore officially. Chance is that the site will load fine, at least in the beginning. Customers are on their own, however, when they encounter issues while using the browser. Additionally, Internet Explorer may lose access to some features, new or old, that get changed or added after support ends officially.
Microsoft plans to display a message to Internet Explorer 11 users if a service is not compatible with the aging browser.
The only option that organizations and home users have in this regard is to use the new Microsoft Edge web browser if they want to or have to use a Microsoft browser. Legacy Edge will reach end of support in early 2021, and that leaves the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge as the only support browser.
Internet Explorer 11 is linked to the lifecycle of the operating system, and that means that Microsoft won't drop support for it entirely until at least 2025. The browser will receive security updates but less and less sites will function properly when using that browser as it won't receive support for new features or technology.
Organizations may use Internet Explorer Mode of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser for sites, apps and services that require specific Internet Explorer technologies or features.
Now You: When was the last time you used Internet Explorer?
Too bad the firmware on all of my IP cameras won’t be updated. I’d love to move off IE. But too many of them require IE for certain features to be set up properly.
Thanks for the usual excellence in your articles, Martin.
A bit sad, actually, as, as much as people like to criticise IE, functionally, it’s a still a very competently-constructed browser. And, whilst, yes, my main browser is Firefox (who, of late, have really pulled finger to make this a stunning browser experienc) and I also am using Edge Chromium more and more (a great, simple, functional browser), I still ALSO use IE as well as it’s just so easy to use and is still a better experience with some things than both Edge and Firefox. Can’t beat simplicity a lot of the time!
I always ask myself the obvious question of “what if” MS had spent more time with IE to upgrade it to current, modern-day standards … why, really, did they need to shift to the Chromium engine? I’m assuming that there must be a sensible reason for this, but, what I’m saying is that the basic IE layout and functionality was — in my opinion — not bad at all.
There you have it. And, yes, we also need to allow progress. Sometimes though, with IE, I question what “sensible progress” should be…
Keep up the excellent work, Martin!
Dorian
I used it in 2006 when my family got the first home PC and I didn’t know any better, I would install random useless toolbars on it because I was a kid and I thought it was cool, but then I saw Firefox on some school computer and tested it out and stopped using IE.
When was the last time you used Internet Explorer?
Personally, last time was about 2.5 years ago otherwise been using Firefox ESR since. However at work a large corporation, IE 11 (on Windows 10 Enterprise version 1809) is still used for most internal (Intranet) applications and probably will be for some time yet. Chrome is the second most used (for general Internet access) followed by Firefox ESR a distant third. Legacy Edge isn’t really used much if at all and the new Edge isn’t even an option yet.
Bit off topic, but will EdgeHTML still be supported (security flaws etc) after Legacy Edge is abandoned in March 2021? Because UWP apps using WebView, as well as Edge for the Xbox, are still using EdgeHTML.