Originally published at: At long last, Microsoft takes Internet Explorer out back | Boing Boing
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My last job had a couple of web apps that still required IE, to the point they had an installation package on Windows Deployment Server to push it onto user computers. I know they were planning to move everything to be more compatible with Chrome, but who knows if that happened.
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Windows users on version 10 or later will have their copies of Internet Explorer disabled in the next update. Attempts to start it will be redirected to the company’s replacement browser, Edge.
Which will be followed by people clicking, “Nope” and sticking with their non-Microsoft browser of choice.
Stop trying to make Edge happen, Gretchen.
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Rob, how long until you are feeling nostalgic and get IE to run on a PC inside of Doom inside of Doom?
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To be fair we encountered a situation in work, with many people trying to use Moodle at the same time (with other apps running) where the lower overheads and higher speed compared to Chrome made our IT recommend it. But then Chrome is a data mining app that sometimes lets you do stuff on the web that you might want to do but always does lots of memory and processor heavy stuff you don’t. I’m sure Edge will be as bad any day now as MS seems to have pivoted to a user bleeding model like Google have.
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Strictly speaking MS is still at the ‘flaying IE alive’ stage; rather than truly killing it.
After the relevant Edge update attempting to use iexplore.exe will get you redirected; but the documentation notes that:
“The MSHTML engine exists as part of the Windows 11 operating system to power IE mode in Microsoft Edge.”
The MSHTML (Trident) engine is the underlying platform for Internet Explorer 11. This is the same engine used by IE mode and it will continue to be supported (in other words, unaffected by this announcement). Both WebOC and the MSHTA app will continue to be supported as they rely on the MSHTML engine which is unaffected by this announcement. If you have a custom or third-party app that relies on the MSHTML platform, you can expect it to continue to work.
As part of the IE 11 application retirement, certain COM automation scenarios were inadvertently broken. These IE COM objects have been restored to their original functionality as of the Windows 11 November 2021 “C” update and the Windows 10 February 2022 “B” update (for versions 1809 and later). The COM scenarios will also continue to work after the IE11 desktop application is disabled after June 15, 2022.
“IE mode supports all document and enterprise modes, Active X controls (such as Java or Silverlight), and more.”
“.mht and .mhtml file support in Microsoft Edge and IE mode is planned for Microsoft Edge version 92.”
That is not dead which can eternal at least through 2029 and quite possibly later if MS blinks lie; and with strange eons even deprecation may be deprecated.
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I don’t think the situation is any better today. At my last office job, we were required to use a ton of cloud apps that all were designed for Chrome. I strongly dislike Chrome, being that it is so slow, bloated and riddled with spyware. I mostly ran Safari and the cloud apps mostly worked. It’s clear none of the developers of those apps tested with anything except Chrome though because fairly regularly I would encounter some feature that didn’t work correctly on any browser except Chrome. I tried Firefox but it was no more compatible than Safari.
So we’re back to where we were in the aughts, with everyone hating that so much of the web required IE and IE sucked. Well, now it’s Chrome.
If you ask this cranky old lady (and nobody did). the real problem happened when we decided to start over with end user computing and build everything all over again, but sitting on top of web browsers this time, instead of operating systems. Why we decided to do that, I will never understand.
I have this powerful and elegant operating system hosting a powerful and beautiful user interface developed over decades of research that is now relegated to displaying a single browser window within which I am required to run a bunch of shitty apps with user interfaces from 1994.
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Animal Logo Mascots, ASSSSSSSSEMBLE!
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We would have tested chrome, Firefox, Brave, as well as edge. Only safari on Mac because why bother.
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With the added disadvantage that this time the app is such a sleazy one.
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Yah, IE sucked for technical reasons, but at least it wasn’t actively attempting evil as all Google stuff is.
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Don’t get me wrong I hated IE - and it did nothing I wanted apart from grant access to a couple of sites I had to use it for. Under protest.
But like you I view Chrome as it’s equivalent now.
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I wonder how this will affect apps, like the current version of Microsoft’s Skype for Business, that continue to use IE to respond to MFA login prompts
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Could this mean that eventually modern cheap IP security cameras will stop insisting on IE6 and (never works) ActiveX controls? Oh please yes euthanize that whole thing.
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In particular, IE was a great tool to download browsers.
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I guess they would keep some of the api. The last time I tried to remove IE recently shit broke. I was no longer able to log into some games like VRChat.
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I heard that Micro$oft is going to send IE to a nice farm upstate where it can run and play with other older browsers like Netscape.
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but you need edge on first install so you can download Firefox
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