This week Microsoft finally took a step that's been years in the making: the company said it will retire its embattled Internet Explorer web browser on June 15, 2022. IE launched in 1995 and came preinstalled on every Windows device for almost 20 years beginning in 1997. But its ubiquity should not be confused with popularity. IE had speed, reliability, and performance issues, not to mention an endless parade of deeply problematic security issues.
“Yet another security-related browser bug has been uncovered, the sixth to affect Microsoft Internet Explorer this month,” WIRED wrote in March 1997. It's not just that IE had bugs, though. Its sorry reputation came Microsoft's practice of bundling IE into its operating system while simultaneously flouting best practices for browser development and then failing to promote and distribute patches quickly. Even recently, when browsers like Chrome were receiving updates as-needed, Microsoft still only updated IE about once a month.
Today, IE has long since fallen out of favor. Microsoft has already spent five years cutting off support for various versions. But goodbye internet explorer riddance
