Internet Explorer 11 will be retired in June 2022 for most Windows 10 versions

Martin Brinkmann
May 19, 2021
Updated • May 20, 2021
Internet Explorer
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Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 web browser will be retired by the company in 2022 for most Windows versions. Microsoft announced the end of Internet Explorer today, just a day after the official release of Windows 10 version 21H1.

ie 11 retire

The aging browser won't be supported on all Windows 10 client SKUs and Windows 10 IoT versions 20H2 and later from June 15, 2022 onward.

Microsoft plans to disable Internet Explorer 11 on all unsupported devices and redirect requests to open Internet Explorer to the company's Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser. Internet Explorer 11 won't be removed from devices because its engine is required for IE Mode to function. IE Mode will bridge the gap between using the Edge web browser and accessing apps and sites that require Internet Explorer-specific technologies.

The following versions and editions of Windows are not affected by the decision:

  • Windows 7 with Extended Security Updates
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 10 client LTSC (all versions)
  • Windows 10 Server SAC (all versions)
  • Windows 10 IoT Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) (all versions)
  • Windows 10 Server LTSC (all versions)

Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer platform will remain supported.

internet explorer retire timeline

IE Mode will be supported at least through 2029 according to Microsoft, and Microsoft will give a one year in advanced warning before deprecating Internet Explorer Mode.

Why is Microsoft retiring Internet Explorer?

Microsoft notes that its new browser, Microsoft Edge offers a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, and that it has addressed one of the major concerns of users and organizations with Internet Explorer mode in the browser. IE Mode can run legacy websites that require Internet Explorer features that modern web browsers don't support.

The decision to retire Internet explorer was based on the following reasons, according to Microsoft:

  • Microsoft Edge offers improved web compatibility, as it is based on Chromium, the same core that Google Chrome and other browsers such as Vivaldi, Brave or Opera are based on.
  • Streamlined productivity as users and organizations can focus on a single browser instead of having to juggle between two browsers.
  • Better browser security with new features and better protections built-into the browser.

Administrators may set up IE Mode in Microsoft Edge using this official guide to allow users to open sites using Internet Explorer. Microsoft states that apps that are developed for IE should work in IE Mode in Microsoft Edge. A special email adddress, ACHELP@microsoft.com, is available, to report compatibility issues when opening sites in IE Mode that are designed for Internet Explorer.

Microsoft won't make any exceptions to the June 15, 2022 deadline.

Microsoft published a FAQ on its Tech Community website that answers frequent questions and contains lots of links to support articles and information.

Now You: do you still use Internet Explorer?

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Internet Explorer 11 will be retired in June 2022 for most Windows 10 versions
Article Name
Internet Explorer 11 will be retired in June 2022 for most Windows 10 versions
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Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 web browser will be retired by the company in 2022 for most Windows versions. Microsoft announced the end of Internet Explorer today, just a day after the official release of Windows 10 version 21H1.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on September 27, 2022 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    wow, I’ve read this using Internet Explorer 11

  2. Yuliya said on May 21, 2021 at 11:33 pm
    Reply

    >7
    >Enterprise LTSC
    >Server LTSC
    The only operating systems worth any damn. So nothing changes <3

  3. Rush said on May 20, 2021 at 8:31 pm
    Reply

    This just in…..a 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 development at Microsoft, ie11desktop application will be retired June 15th 2022….and we have film at 11./s

  4. anona said on May 20, 2021 at 10:33 am
    Reply

    I still think they should have continued work on EdgeHTML and make it cross-platform. Chromium-Edge is just adding to the monopoly.

  5. Sam said on May 20, 2021 at 4:33 am
    Reply

    IE’s design is one of the best out there. Its unique ability to have navigation bar and tabs on the same row remains unmatched.

    1. Henk said on May 20, 2021 at 1:21 pm
      Reply

      Yes, I haven’t used IE in years but on this single point I agree with you. If (like me) you rarely have more than three tabs open at the same time, this near-empty tab bar remains a waste of screen space.
      In Firefox, long ago there was an extension that let you combine the address bar and tab bar into one, as in IE, but in modern Firefox versions this seems not possible (I’d like to know if someone could tell a way to still do this, with some complex user CSS code perhaps?)
      Anyway, there is one other thing you can easily do in Firefox to make your empty tab bar space a bit more useful: by putting your most-visited bookmarks in there. If you already have those bookmarks in a bookmarks bar, then open “customize” and drag the “Bookmarks Toolbar Items” thingy into the tab bar. This will put those bookmarks in the right-hand side of the tab bar. After this you will still see a blank space for the former bookmarks bar, but this blank space will disappear when you uncheck “Bookmarks Bar” in the top context menu.
      So as the end result, you now have a combined tabs + bookmarks bar. And thereby, more screen space for actual content.

      1. Peterc said on May 21, 2021 at 10:02 am
        Reply

        @Henk: Pale Moon is based on legacy, pre-Australis Firefox, with a “fully customizable” UI, so it’s *conceivable* that that old Firefox extension would work in Pale Moon with a simple targetApplication hack. (I don’t recall coming across any “official” Pale-Moon forked or original extensions that do what you want.) I’m guessing you’d want to go for the extension version that worked best in Firefox 28.*, before Firefox switched to the Chrome-like Australis UI. (If you do end up wanting to hack the extension, be a good netizen and respect its licensing terms.)

        It’s also quite possible that you could simply enter “customize” mode and drag the tab bar to the right of the navigation bar. In fact, I’d try that first. I’m not going to try it *for* you, though. I routinely run with up to 20 pinned tabs alone, and I’m pretty happy with my current UI. I don’t want to risk messing with it.

        By the way, I’m running Pale Moon in full-screen mode right now. The *entire screen* is devoted to page content, with no bars whatsoever. When I mouse to the top of the screen, or do a keyboard shortcut that targets something in the navigation bar (ctrl+l for address, ctrl+k for search), *all* of the top bars reappear, and when I mouse to the bottom of the screen, the status bar reappears. (Full disclosure: I needed help from the forum to write a custom css to get the menu bar to reappear. That was important to me, not just because I’m old-fashioned and like menu bars, but because the menu bar is where I’ve parked most of my toolbar buttons!)

      2. Jody Thornton said on May 26, 2021 at 5:12 pm
        Reply

        @Peterc:

        Yes, pre-Australis, there was an add-on called FoxE9. I have a copy of it, and I’m unsure that it’s available anywhere. The add-on still worked with Pale Moon, but I’m unsure if it will still work on the latest revision.

  6. ShintoPlasm said on May 19, 2021 at 11:28 pm
    Reply

    And not a moment too soon.

  7. Dumbledalf said on May 19, 2021 at 11:25 pm
    Reply

    Currently I have Chromium Edge uninstalled and I use my browser of choice + IE when I want to see how a website works without all my content blocking, because it’s more work turning them off than opening IE.

    I don’t know what will I do after they remove it from the system, but I won’t be using their Edge, because it’s crap, unless they somehow integrate it inside Windows 10 so that I can’t uninstall it. What I recently started hating the most about Edge is that even the New Tab page has a cookie dialog box and it greys out everything else. If cookie dialogs are jumping at me right from the New Tab page… what comes after that? I’m too scared to find out.

    I swear Edge and Windows 10 altogether is starting to act like a malware – as soon as you log in for the first time on a fresh Windows 10 install, Edge starts bombarding you from the start – it opens some window in the bottom right, it runs from start, it literally hijacks you from the start and if you want to ignore it, you have to kill its many processes from Task Manager. That’s what malware does too – it hijacks you and it doesn’t go away until you kill its processes and then run an antivirus scan.

  8. Peterc said on May 19, 2021 at 10:50 pm
    Reply

    TYPO ALERT: “Microsoft won’t make any exceptions to the June 15, 2020 deadline” should read “… June 15, 2022” deadline.

    Are there still any non-fringe/non-trivial sites that support only Internet Explorer on Windows? And do (or did) most of those sites at least also support Safari on Mac? I remember that a decade or so ago, Costco’s site was fully functional in Internet Explorer and not in legacy Firefox, but I think it’s been at least five years since I’ve run into a site that required Internet Explorer — and *that* site hosted a minor (no pun intended) music-theory web app that wasn’t actively maintained. Are there still any bank, government, or corporate sites that haven’t been recoded?

    1. Fish said on May 20, 2021 at 3:04 pm
      Reply

      Last I knew is that HealthStream only works on IE9.
      On Windows 7, to deal with this at home (for years,
      there’s been a way to do that): disable, remove any
      recent version, then reinstall 9.

      Here (a tiny hometown in Nebraska, USA), we
      do need HS to keep the job.

      We’re engaged in staying on the front line, caring
      for the needy who have run out of other options.

      Offhand, anyone familiar with HealthStream,
      currently?

      1. Peterc said on May 21, 2021 at 9:01 am
        Reply

        I’d never heard of HealthStream before. Is it a uniform product, or do different institutions have their own custom implementation? At any rate, the first hit in Google Search says, people can use “the current and prior major release of Chrome and Firefox for Windows and Safari on a Mac, as well as Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10, and 11 on Windows.” Another hit says Google Chrome is the preferred browser. Another one, from 2017, says that HealthStream works best in Internet Explorer.

  9. ULBoom said on May 19, 2021 at 9:53 pm
    Reply

    Haven’t used IE in 15 years or so.
    I guess the best thing about it was keeping Apple alive.

  10. John G. said on May 19, 2021 at 9:53 pm
    Reply

    Some goverment sites only work with IE11 because they still require the Java plugin. :[

    1. beemeup5 said on May 20, 2021 at 10:41 am
      Reply

      Pale Moon has no plans to drop NPAPI plugins, so if you need Java there will still be one actively developed browser that supports it. My most used plugin is the 64-bit SumatraPDF plugin which I use to open PDFs in browser. I find it to be much better than the PDF.js component.

      1. John G. said on May 20, 2021 at 4:05 pm
        Reply

        @beemeup5 thanks, nice idea indeed, I will give a look to Pale Moon tomorrow! :]

  11. jomargon said on May 19, 2021 at 9:41 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft no hará ninguna excepción a la fecha límite del 15 de junio de “2020”
    Martin,Creo que te refieres a 2022
    .

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