The End of Internet Explorer’s Life
A few days ago we experienced the end of Internet Explorer. The browser that so many used throughout their lives as the digital world exploded. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, I’m talking to my dad, you’ll need to finally upgrade.
Over a year ago Microsoft announced that the end of Internet Explorer would be coming on June 15, 2022. This year marked the 27th year Internet Explorer was around. We saw the launch of it in 1995 alongside Microsoft’s Windows 95. We saw 20 years after the initial launch, a new product from Microsoft, Microsoft Edge.
In April of 2015, Microsoft launched Microsoft Edge. Edge is a cross-platform web browser. This is the official Internet Explorer replacement. Within this browser, Microsoft added an Internet Explorer mode for users that still wish to utilize Explorer. According to Microsoft officials, this new browser is overall more secure and faster than Internet Explorer ever was. Many of us 80s and 90s kids remember getting our parents’ accidental viruses from downloading Limewire off Internet Explorer.
Many of our team members have some amazing and funny memories of Internet Explorer. Here is what many of them had to say about Explorer.
My memory is from elementary school computer class when the teachers would always say, 'click the blue e' and begin your work and we would all just play flash games instead.
My fondest memories of Internet Explorer are having to explain to our clients why the dev estimate is doubled if they want their site to support it. Also, having to be EXTREMELY careful publishing analytics tracking code because any JavaScript errors in the code would prompt an ERROR alert window in the user's browser.
My fondest memories of Internet Explorer are using it to install better browsers on fresh Windows installs.
I remember playing Miniclip games on Internet Explorer and then my mom would get a call on our landline and my game would freeze. So then I downloaded Firefox to play games on.
My fondest memory is this meme.
My favorite memory of Internet Explorer is living in South Korea the land of the fastest internet in the world and still, right up until the bitter end, being shocked by how many official services (like taxes) REQUIRED Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer will always remind me of bad anglefire and lycos pages with this animated gif on every page saying 'Under Construction'.
I remember Internet Explorer being brave enough to ask to be my default browser. Delusional, but brave.
My favorite memory of IE was that they shipped congratulatory cakes to the Mozilla team after every major launch starting with Firefox 2 back in 2006. I always thought that was really neat.
My favorite aspect of IE was that most malicious viruses and spybots were built for it. So, by using an alternative browser, you could avoid 95%+ of all malware. My most fond memory of IE, before I thought of downloading an alternative, when I was 12 and learned that I could change something in the url, usually a number, to visit parts of a website that were under construction or even better would show me the website file structure.
For an old guy like me (who was the first one in the neighborhood who had dial-up internet, ugh, and then cable), Internet Explorer was where many of us first found out that we could find anything on the internet. RIP IE.
As we wrap up the end of the Internet Explorer era, we will all remember the path Microsoft paved for future browsers. While Explorer will be gone, we are sure the memes about long load times, and broken sites, will remain forever. Now Dad, please download Chrome and end most of your computer frustrations.