Internet Explorer was finally killed off for almost every consumer version of Windows on June 15, 2022. It"s death was even mourned celebrated with faux gravestones commemorating it as a "good tool to download other browsers". However, it seems like Microsoft"s browser still lives on in the depths of its latest operating system.
Although Windows 11 does not officially come bundled with Internet Explorer, the ancient browser can still be launched on the OS. This can be seen in the video below, courtesy of The Verge"s Tom Warren.
you thought Internet Explorer was dead, didn"t you? muahahaha ๐
โ Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 3, 2022
โโ( ` แข ยด )โ โ pic.twitter.com/i5bXZwLRr3
The method to launch IE11 in Windows 11 was first discovered by Twitter user @XenoPanther earlier today.
If you"d rather follow textual instructions to open IE11 in Windows 11 for some godforsaken reason, we have you covered:
- Search for Internet Options in the Start menu search bar
- Open the Control Panel applet that pops up in search results
- Go the Programs tab
- Click the Manage add-ons button
- Click on Learn more about toolbars and extensions in the bottom-left corner of the window
- Voila, Internet Explorer is back again!
This should work for all versions of Windows 11, including generally available and Insider Preview releases. As can be seen in the header image for this article, we managed to successfully open it on an older Dev Channel build 25158.
This is clearly unintended behavior and is likely a legacy piece of code that Microsoft forgot to re-purpose. Now that it"s common knowledge, the company will likely work fast to close this gap.