NIXsolutions: Microsoft Offers Choice – Users Can Decide When to Uninstall Internet Explorer 11

Back in June last year, Microsoft warned the whole world that it would stop supporting Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) and eventually remove it from the main editions of Windows 7, 8 and 10. At the same time, the company announced that the legendary browser would still continue to work in some corporate and Server editions of Windows with extended support.

NIXsolutions

Switching to the new Microsoft Edge

In February of this year, with another update to Microsoft Edge, the modern Chromium-based browser finally replaced Internet Explorer in major editions of Windows, but IE11 was still available in the aforementioned special editions.

Users are given a choice

Microsoft previously planned to remove all visual references to IE11 (including icons on the taskbar and start menu) with the release of a security update on May 23, but yesterday the company updated the information in the Internet Explorer section of its official website, announcing the following: “Based on feedback customers, organizations will retain control over when to remove IE11 UI elements from their devices if they haven’t already.”

Redirect to Microsoft Edge

“In the coming months, that small subset of exceptional scenarios where IE11 was still used will be redirected to Edge, providing users with access to a supported and more secure Microsoft browser,” the company added.

Reasons to keep IE11

In other words, Microsoft decided to leave it up to users to choose when IE11 is permanently removed from their devices. This decision is largely due to the fact that in some organizations certain specific software is tightly tied to IE11, so removing it can paralyze the normal operation of these organizations.

History and perspectives of IE11

For the first time, the company announced the end of support for IE11 in Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 back in August 2020. And Microsoft published the official announcement of the retirement of the browser almost a year later, in May 2021.

Moving to Modern Edge

Microsoft has been urging customers to move to modern Edge for several years now, with a special IE mode that provides backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer, notes NIXsolutions. According to the company, Edge will receive support until at least 2029, but for some reason not all organizations are in a hurry to switch to it.