Considerations for Future Use of IE and Edge

• IE 11 will be available on Windows Server 2012 installed in the Desktop Experience mode.
• Microsoft recommends that IE be used only when needed for compatibility, not as a general-purpose browser.
• Google Chromium-based Edge will be available on Windows 7.

With Internet Explorer (IE) 11 being the only supported version of IE and a new Chromium-based Edge browser planned but with an unknown availability date, Microsoft is making IE11 available for some Windows versions and asking organizations to limit its use to sites that have not been updated to work with modern browsers. Both recommendations may require organizations to make significant efforts to comply and reduce risk of using an unsafe browser.

IE Is Dead, Long Live IE

In Jan. 2016, Microsoft announced that only the most current version of IE available for a supported OS would receive support and security updates. On most OS versions, the supported version has been IE11, but on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard, the only supported IE version has been IE10. Microsoft plans to retire IE10 in Jan. 2020 and make IE11 available on the OS versions where IE10 was the only supported version.