Windows 11 is removing Internet Explorer

At one point in the life of Windows 10, you might have had Internet Explorer installed, the Microsoft Edge legacy version, and the new Chromium-powered Edge. This trio of browsers was the perfect illustration of Microsoft's struggles with the web over the last decade. Still, now that Internet Explorer will be shelved in 2022, it's disappearing from Windows 11 too.

Microsoft revealed yesterday that Internet Explorer would be "disabled" on Windows 11. Earlier, I was concerned that it would mean that Internet Explorer might stay ahead of the last nail in its coffin on June 15, 2022, but it's disappearing entirely from Windows 11. "The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will not be available on Windows 11. Microsoft Edge is the default browser for Windows 11," explained a Microsoft spokesperson to The Verge. "The MSHTML engine exists as part of the Windows 11 operating system to power IE mode in Microsoft Edge."

We weren't expecting Internet Explorer to appear in Windows 11. However, Microsoft warned that Windows 10's Long-Term Service Channel (LTSC) would still include Internet Explorer next year despite a planned consumer phase-out for June 15, 2022. Windows 11 will now altogether remove the browser, and if you use shortcuts like iexplore, you will now be redirected to Microsoft Edge.

It is the first time that Microsoft has not included Internet Explorer with a new version of Windows in more than 20 years. If memory serves me, Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.5 in 1997 was the first time Microsoft explicitly included Internet Explorer in Windows Explorer and other vital parts of Windows.

That grouping led to the infamous antitrust battle between the United States and Microsoft just one year after Internet Explorer debuted in October 1997. The rest, as they say, is history.