Microsoft is ending support for Internet Explorer mode in Edge

Internet Explorer's last foothold on modern Windows now has an expiration date.

Microsoft is reminding IT administrators that Internet Explorer mode in its Edge browser, the only remaining way to run IE's rendering engine on current versions of Windows, will be supported through at least the end of 2029, according to gHacks Tech News. The notice, posted in the Microsoft 365 admin center under message ID MC1473151, tells organizations that still depend on IE-only applications to start planning their migrations now.

According to gHacks, the company has committed to announcing an end-of-support date at least a year before it takes effect. The early warning is to give admins time to rebuild or replace internal software, which can take years.

For context, IE mode is a compatibility feature inside Edge. Edge is built on Google's open-source Chromium engine, but IE mode lets it load pages with Trident, the older engine that powered Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft first flagged the mode's eventual retirement in 2021, according to gHacks.

Organizations with no IE dependencies don't need to take any action. For companies that still depend on it, Microsoft's guidance is to identify what depends on IE mode and update or replace it.

The notice is the latest step in a long wind-down. Microsoft officially retired the standalone Internet Explorer 11 browser in June 2022, 26 years after the browser shipped with early versions of Windows. At that point, Microsoft began steering anyone who tried to open IE toward Edge. Most users had already left. By the time of its retirement, IE held less than 1 percent of the browser market, according to StatCounter data at the time.