It feels like we have been reading announcements related to the death of Internet Explorer for ages, but that is primarily due to Microsoft carrying out the process in phases. In the next step of this staggered approach, the Redmond tech giant will be pushing an Edge update to permanently disable Internet Explorer (IE) in certain versions of Windows 10.
Microsoft had already announced that it would be releasing this IE-killing update back in December 2022. Although the company had previously stated that this software bomb would be delivered through a Windows Update, it later communicated that it would happen through an Edge update.
This Microsoft Edge update will be rolled out to all devices - both consumer and commercial - at the same time and there will be no possibility to roll back this change. After this, IE customers will see a banner with the headline "The future of Internet Explorer is in Microsoft Edge" and they will be redirected to Edge any time they try to launch an IE-based use-case. Their browsing data will be seamlessly migrated too.
Organizations which have already migrated to the Chromium-based Edge with IE mode to handle legacy use-cases will not be impacted by this configuration. However, firms which have not done so yet despite multiple warnings will risk disruption to their business operations as certain applications which rely on IE may stop working altogether.
It is important to note that while the redirection will be in effect from today, visual references to IE such as icons on the Taskbar will continue to exist for the next few months. They will be removed by June 13, 2023 through a Windows Security "B" release update. You will also be able to get rid of them earlier by installing the optional, preview "C" release on May 23, 2023.