Microsoft has announced that it will end technical support and security updates for older versions of its web browser with effect from 12 January 2016, as the company wants all internet explorer users to migrate to the latest version of the web browser.
Microsoft’s Roger Capriotti said in an announcement on Thursday that after the January 12, 2016 deadline only the most recent iteration of Internet Explorer available for the supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates. For instance, IE version 9 and 10 will only be supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008, while IE 10 will be supported only on Windows Server 2012.
IE 9 running on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2, IE 10 on Windows Server 2012 and IE 11 on Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server R2 SP1, Windows 8.1 and Windows Sever 2012 R2 are the versions that will no longer be supported by the company.
In addition, Microsoft said that as older versions of the web browser can lead to security risks, all possible assistance would be provided to the customers to migrate to the newest version to ensure web-based applications and programs created for older versions of IE works effectively well with newer versions.
Microsoft said the latest move will also help developers as they will no longer be required to support the out-of-date technologies in those older browsers.
According to a NetMarketShare survey, Internet Explorer currently holds for more than half the browser market. The IE 8 is still the single-most popular browser version worldwide with 21.56 percent users, followed by the most recent iteration, IE 11 used by 16.78 percent of web users, IE9 used by 9.06 percent of users and IE 10 by 6.26 percent.
