(Short Answer – Yes but only until 17th August 2021)
Sorry, remind me, what is Internet Explorer?
Unless you’re living under a rock still, we’re sure that most are fully aware that Internet Explorer is a Browser and primarily used for browsing web pages – along with the likes of Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge. This was regarded as one of the most popular browsers prior to Chrome.
Why was Internet Explorer so popular?
It takes a long time to phase a browser out. Especially IE due to it pretty much being the most popular and well known browser our there. Users would just go with Internet Explorer because it was there on most PC’s pre installed.
It wasn’t until recently that other Browsers successfully competed with Internet Explorer like Chrome, Firefox and Safari. This came about as other competitors to Microsoft computers came along like Apple, Chrome Books and Smart Phones.
Because a huge chunk of the world were using IE Microsoft couldn’t just ‘turn it off’. A lot of digital products will enter EOL (End of Life) – a period of limited support for around a year before being terminated completely.
What does IE entering EOL (End of Life) mean for my website?
To put it simply, likely not a lot! Each web design agency will have their own policies for how they’ll be dealing with Internet Explorer. We at Digital Fuse will no longer be supporting IE as of January 2021. We’ll be focusing our attention in ensuring websites we build are stable and secure on the latest supported browsers and operating systems. If you tend to keep with the times then you are probably already using Microsoft Edge. A much more improved browser compared with Internet Explorer, and one that can actually rival the likes of Chrome and Safari.
Why are website developers so happy that Internet Explorer is finally dead?
IE has been a huge thorn in the side for website developers and programmers for a very long time. It’s often the case that you have a beautifully designed website looking broken or misaligned when viewed on Internet Explorer. Despite it looking perfect in all other browsers. This means that developers have two options; either remove the dynamic visuals and simplify them in a format that IE can understand. Or add additional, specific code to the website to ensure it looks consistent when viewed on Internet Explorer.
Testing websites in Internet Explorer has been a painful process. Often throwing up non-sensical spanners in the works. Resulting in potentially delaying projects due to extensive testing, debugging, fixes and further testing. We couldn’t be happier that this is something we’ll no longer have to worry about.
If your website hasn’t been updated in a while; is out of date, or using old technologies such as Flash (more info on Flash EOL can be found here) then you’ll need to ensure that your website is updated to meet the current requirements. Furthermore ensuring it is taking full advantage of the latest features and functions available.
Now that IE is going, what should I use?
If you’re still using Internet Explorer you should really be considering moving on to Microsoft Edge. We also highly recommend Chrome which is lightweight, has plenty of useful add-ons which can greatly improve your browsing experience.
A final farewell
Microsoft Edge handles the latest HTML and CSS code (and other coding languages and systems for that matter) amazingly well. It fits in nicely rubbing shoulders with Chrome, Safari and Firefox as a well rounded browser. Not lagging behind causing problems like the inferior Internet Explorer!
Even big services like Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft One Drive will no longer support IE. Please just put Internet Explorer in the bin – well… maybe just don’t use it as Microsoft don’t allow you to uninstall it since it came bundled! Grab yourself Microsoft Edge now and enjoy surfing the web again. An added bonus is that you’ll be helping website developers world wide by not having to test and fix code just for IE 11 and before!
Internet Explorer EOL – 17th August 2021
Internet Explorer will no longer be supported by Microsoft
We hope you’ve found this article about Internet Explorer entering EOL informative. If you have any questions about this topic or anything potentially relating to your website, feel free to get in touch.
