{"id":21030,"date":"2023-05-05T15:03:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T11:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/internet-explorer-is-finally-dead-or-is-it\/21030\/"},"modified":"2023-05-05T15:03:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T11:03:05","slug":"internet-explorer-is-finally-dead-or-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/internet-explorer-is-finally-dead-or-is-it\/21030\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet Explorer is finally dead. Or is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, the IT-security media space was once again full of cheery reports that Microsoft was finally burying Internet Explorer (IE)<\/a>. Let\u2019s recap the long story of how the once most-popular browser in the world was gradually disconnected from its life-support systems, and investigate whether it\u2019s finally time to rejoice (spoiler: it isn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

Internet Explorer: life and death<\/s> chronicles<\/h2>\n

We remind those who didn\u2019t witness (or have forgotten) the 2000s that, back then, Internet Explorer ruled the web, with a browser market share of more than 90%<\/a>. It\u2019s hard to believe it now, but Explorer was even more dominant than the current champion, Google Chrome, is now.<\/p>\n

However, since the introduction of Chrome in 2008, Explorer\u2019s popularity has been steadily falling away. We can consider 2012 as the end of the Explorer era, when Chrome finally overtook it. That said, Microsoft\u2019s first official acknowledgment of this fact came only in 2015.<\/p>\n

Back then, along with unveiling Windows 10, the company announced it was closing down Internet Explorer\u2019s development and introducing Edge<\/a> as the default browser for Windows, signifying the first phase of IE\u2019s decommissioning. The original version of Edge was powered by Microsoft\u2019s own EdgeHTML engine, a modification of the MSHTML (also known as Trident), on which Internet Explorer was based.<\/p>\n

Of course, Edge featured an IE compatibility mode. However, Explorer, in its eleventh and final version, was still integrated into the operating system. So began the dual-browser period, when both Edge and Explorer were preinstalled in Windows, which (another spoiler) continues to this day.<\/p>\n

Three years later, in December 2018, came phase two: Microsoft abandoned further attempts to develop its own engine and unveiled<\/a> an all-new version of Edge, this time based on Chromium<\/a>. This browser, too, had an IE compatibility mode. And Explorer was still left in the system.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Microsoft released its new Windows 11. It was now no longer possible to boot up and use Explorer as a standalone browser \u2014 theoretically at least. However, Edge still retained its IE compatibility mode. And Explorer itself was still present in the system, so, after a spot of tinkering, it was still possible to run it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of years after that, just recently in February 2023, news broke that Microsoft had finally finished off Explorer in its latest update. A coup de grace, ending this cruel agony. But, upon closer inspection, it turns out that the old dog is still breathing!\u2026<\/p>\n

Disable doesn\u2019t mean delete<\/h2>\n

The first thing to realize about the Windows update is that it doesn\u2019t expunge Explorer from the operating system; it disables it<\/em>. In practice, this means that Explorer can no longer be launched as a standalone browser (this time for sure). However, Edge, formally the only browser in Windows, still has an IE-compatible mode. This means that Explorer is still alive \u2014 if not quite kicking: it\u2019s there just to ensure the operation of this mode.<\/p>\n

Now if you try to open Explorer, Edge will run instead. And in it, if you really want to, you can select IE compatibility mode. Consequently, Explorer will continue to inhabit Windows until Microsoft finally decides to bury IE compatibility mode.<\/p>\n

The patch to disable IE doesn\u2019t work on all systems<\/h2>\n

Even the disabling<\/em> of Explorer wasn\u2019t absolute. There\u2019s a whole raft of operating systems excluded from getting the update that turns IE off. Microsoft has kindly published<\/a> a list of these exclusions:<\/p>\n