Internet Explorer was Microsoft’s web browser, first released in 1995 and shipped as part of the Windows operating system. Microsoft’s own lifecycle documentation describes Internet Explorer as “a component of the Windows operating system” that “follows the Lifecycle Policy for the product on which it is installed and supported.” This tight integration with Windows became the central fact of the browser’s history.
That integration was the heart of the antitrust case United States v. Microsoft. In its Findings of Fact, the court found that Microsoft took specific steps “to bind IE to Windows,” including excluding Internet Explorer from the Add/Remove Programs utility and commingling browser code with operating system code so that, in the court’s words, removing the browser’s files “would cripple Windows.” The court found this conduct harmed rival browsers such as Netscape Navigator and helped Microsoft win the first browser war.
Having won that war, Internet Explorer’s development slowed. The browser became notorious for stagnating at version 6, lagging behind web standards while competitors like Firefox and later Google Chrome moved faster, which eventually eroded its dominance.
Microsoft formally ended Internet Explorer’s life decades later. Its documentation states that “Internet Explorer 11 is the last major version of Internet Explorer” and that the desktop application “went out of support for certain operating systems starting June 15, 2022,” with users directed to Microsoft Edge and its built in Internet Explorer mode for legacy sites.