Farewell Internet Explorer 11. It’s been a great run.

By Renold Liu

Internet Explorer 11 – It’s been a long run for one of the world’s most popular browsers. And now it’s almost time to rest. 

According to Microsoft, Internet Explorer 11 will stop being supported by Microsoft Teams on Nov 30, 2020 with the rest of Microsoft Office 365 online products stopping IE11 support by August 17, 2021.

In step with this news, Leadbox will also cease to support for IE11 browsers for our websites products starting November 30, 2020.

What does this mean for my customers?

Luckily, not much. The vast majority of your online shoppers are not using IE11. Internet Explorer 11 does not run on any mobile devices, only on Windows desktop machines. Additionally, for the past few years the default browser that has been shipping with Windows is Microsoft Edge – not Internet Explorer 11. 

This means that people who use IE11 consciously choose to use that browser rather than for convenience or accidentally. 

According to our statistics, only a small percentage of online car shoppers still use IE11 as their browsers. In fact, our statistics are very much in line with StatCounter, which shows that IE11 represents only 3.3% of all browser usage in Canada and 1.3% worldwide. 

What does it mean for my website?

Again, not much will change. At Leadbox, “Support for a Browser” simply means that we test our features on that browser to ensure quality and functionality. If we find issues on a specific browser, we fix it until it functions optimally.

When we de-support a browser, it does not mean the website will cease to exist and function when using that particular browser, it simply means it won’t be optimized. 

Typically this only means that some items may not appear correctly.

What if I need to use IE11 for my business 

Many dealers have reported to us that they currently use Internet Explorer 11 to run one or more of their vital business systems. Luckily Microsoft Edge, the most modern Microsoft browser (and one that Leadbox DOES support) has something called “Internet Explorer” mode.

According to the Microsoft Internet Explore End of Life article: 

“With the new Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer mode, customers don’t need an awkward workaround of one browser for some apps and another for other apps. They can standardize on one browser and seamlessly experience the best of the modern web in one tab while accessing a business-critical legacy IE 11 app in another tab – all housed within the new Microsoft Edge.”

All this is to say that the new Microsoft Edge browser can run both your older IE11 required applications AND modern web sites on the same browser. 

Best of all, it’s most likely already installed on your Windows machine. 

It’s had a great run and now it’s time to rest

Internet Explorer 11 was introduced in October 2013. In these 7 year it’s popularity waned in the face of more modern browsers like Google Chrome and mobile browsers like Apple’s Safari. 

And now at the end of its product life, it’s time to put Internet Explorer 11 to rest. 

Thanks for all the memories, Internet Explorer 11.

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