'IE mode support follows the lifecycle of Windows client, Server, and IoT releases at least through 2029,' Microsoft wrote in a FAQ on the demise of the IE11 desktop app.

Not surprisingly, then, support for IE mode will run much longer, until 2029 for WindLTSC and until May 2023 for Windows 10 Enterprise 20H2, which launched late last year. (When Lyndersay referred to 'the future of Internet Explorer is in Microsoft Edge' ( emphasis added, he was referring to IE mode.)īusinesses still wedded to aged internal sites and too-expensive-to-rewrite apps are to be pushed toward Edge and its baked-in IE mode.

What's most important to enterprises is that the June 2022 support deadline can be sidestepped by using Edge and its IE mode that last calls up designated sites using IE's Trident rather than Edge's now-native Chromium. Commercial customers who pay for the third year of Extended Security Updates (ESUs) will receive support for IE through the end of that contract, or until Jan. (WindLTSC, for instance, has support until January 2029, while 2015 LTSB and 2016 LTSB will be supported until October 2025 and October 2026, respectively.) Microsoft alluded to as much when it said that the LTSB/LSTC versions were 'out of scope at the time of this announcement' ( emphasis added) of the June 15, 2022, date.Įven IE11 running on Windows 7 will be supported longer than next June. That's not to say the separate IE11 application will survive that long. J12 months and change away - won't be the end of the browser by any means.īecause Microsoft had previously promised customers that IE11 would be supported as part of the three Windows 10 LTSC versions released so far (the first two, 2105 LTSB and 2106 LTSB, went by Long-term Support Branch) the end-of-support order won't be applied to them. And once Microsoft released a reworked Edge, the one built atop technologies from the Google-dominated Chromium project, it was only a matter of time before the company pulled that support plug.Įven so, IE11 will suffer a long, lingering death. developer put IE on life support more than five years ago, when it halted development of the browser in early 2016. If it seems Microsoft has been killing IE for years, well, it has.

Internet explorer forces edge