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Internet Explorer (known as IE) was Microsoft’s standard internet browser and has been included as part of Windows since 1995. It is currently on its 11th version and you almost certainly have used it at some point. Perhaps you’re even reading this using IE.

Back in the late 90’s Netscape was the dominant browser, but Internet Explorer beat it in the first browser war (yes, very nerdy) and went on to enjoy around 95% market share in 2002/2003. Since then, its usage has decreased as other browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have come along to challenge, as well as other types of operating system which do not run IE (like Apple’s OSX) have become more popular.

Microsoft have now retired Internet Explorer. As Web Developers we could not wait for this day and it finally happened last week. From 12th January Microsoft stopped support for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 and so in effect making these versions obsolete. These versions of Internet Explorer have always made developing websites tricky as they all failed to keep up to date with the latest trends in CSS and web development. It had got to the point where is was more than just a joke in the industry…

This means that if you are using the old versions you will soon start to get notifications prompting you to upgrade to Internet Explorer 11, if you haven’t already. Users on Windows 10 will be moved to Edge, which is the new Microsoft’s browser offering. It seems quite good so far.

You of course do have lots of other options when it comes to internet browsers and generally we like Google Chrome due to the great number of plugins and the excellent developer tools. This of course might not be what you are looking for, but luckily its easy to download another browser and give it a go. Have a play with the few shown below and pick your favourite: –

There are of course other options but the above list covers the main ones. Give them a try!

 

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