Internet Explorer: end of support for Microsoft Accounts and Apps in November

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Microsoft is putting Internet Explorer slowly but steadily to rest. The company's Microsoft 365 team announced in August that it would phase out support for Internet Explorer 11 starting with the end of support of Microsoft Teams in Internet Explorer on November 30, 2020.

On August 17, 2021, Microsoft 365 will stop supporting Internet Explorer 11 in its entirety. The legacy version of Microsoft Edge reaches end of support on March 9, 2021, and that leaves the new Chromium-based browser, also called Microsoft Edge, as Microsoft's sole browser that it supports fully.

German blog Dr. Windows reports that Internet Explorer 11 will lose support for Microsoft Accounts and Microsoft Apps in November as well; the end of support comes in addition to the already announced end of support by the Microsoft 365 team. Microsoft has not published a public announcement that confirms the blog post, but the maintainer of the site is usually well informed.

According to the report, Microsoft is informing Enterprise customers currently about the upcoming end of support. It is unclear whether the support end affects only business customers of Microsoft or home customers as well; it is very likely that all customers are affected by the end of support.

End of support does not mean that Internet Explorer 11 users will see a "your browser is no longer supported" message when they open a site, app or service that does not support the browser anymore officially. Chance is that the site will load fine, at least in the beginning. Customers are on their own, however, when they encounter issues while using the browser. Additionally, Internet Explorer may lose access to some features, new or old, that get changed or added after support ends officially.

Microsoft plans to display a message to Internet Explorer 11 users if a service is not compatible with the aging browser.

The only option that organizations and home users have in this regard is to use the new Microsoft Edge web browser if they want to or have to use a Microsoft browser. Legacy Edge will reach end of support in early 2021, and that leaves the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge as the only support browser.

Internet Explorer 11 is linked to the lifecycle of the operating system, and that means that Microsoft won't drop support for it entirely until at least 2025. The browser will receive security updates but less and less sites will function properly when using that browser as it won't receive support for new features or technology.

Organizations may use Internet Explorer Mode of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser for sites, apps and services that require specific Internet Explorer technologies or features.

Now You: When was the last time you used Internet Explorer?
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