Microsoft Ending Support for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 (Mostly)

Microsoft is ending support for all versions of Internet Explorer below 11 on Tuesday, January 12^th. It will be releasing one final patch for IE 8, 9, and 10 that will encourage users to upgrade to the most recent version, IE 11.

With Microsoft ending support for the legacy versions of IE, it means those versions will receive no more security updates or technical support. If you continue to use those versions, you’ll be more vulnerable to attacks.

Microsoft says the following on its IE End of Support page:

Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical supports and security updates. Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

End of Life for IE 8, 9 and 10

This move has been known for a long time now and shouldn’t come as a surprise. Microsoft announced it was going to end support for old versions back in August 2014. And we reported about this move last month as well.

But this latest reminder from Microsoft should remind everyone to make sure they upgrade to IE 11.

Of course, if you’ve upgraded to Windows 10, the default browser is Microsoft Edge and IE 11 is also built-in. You also have the option to switch to a different browser like Chrome or Firefox if you’re running an older version of Windows.

And, if you’re running Windows 10, and don’t like Edge, you can change the default. For more on that read our article: How to Change the Default Web Browser in Windows 10.

If you’re a business or enterprise customer, you can find out more about this development here. Also, Microsoft is encouraging business and enterprise customers that have proprietary apps that are build on older versions to use Enterprise Mode in IE 11.

Update: Internet Explorer 9 will continue to be supported in Windows Vista and Server 2008. Internet Explorer 10 will continue to be supported in Server 2012. The reason being, Vista, Server 2008 and Server 2012 cannot be updated to IE 11.