Internet Explorer gets the boot

I won't miss IE at all, and I don't know anyone who will.

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Starting our fourth decade: Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously online since 1983

Internet Explorer gets the boot

March 29, 2015

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2015, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2015, The Post-Standard

Microsoft is dragging Internet Explorer to the Recycle Bin.

By the time Windows 10 comes out later this year, Internet Explorer will be a has-been. It will linger for a while in case someone actually needs it for compatibility with old software, but basically you and I can consider it old meat.

I won't miss IE at all, and I don't know anyone who will. It's long past the time for IE to join Clippy, Microsoft Bob and Windows Vista in Microsoft's graveyard of second-rate ideas. The company says it's replacing Internet Explorer with a totally new browser code-named Project Spartan.

Internet Explorer was once king of the Internet superhighway. Incredibly, Internet Explorer once had 95 percent of the market. Unfortunately, it was just as dangerous as it was popular, practically inviting viruses, worms and other malware into Windows computers.

Microsoft kept fixing security holes and finally licked most of IE's problems, but wasn't able to persuade savvy users to stick with IE. Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome rose as IE fell. The most recent figures show Internet Explorer with a 13 percent market share, with Chrome at 43 percent and Firefox at 11 percent.

Windows 10, which will be released later this year, is the first version of Windows produced by the company's new, younger management. As if to erase any connection with the unpopular current version, Windows 8, Microsoft went straight to "10" in its numbering, skipping Windows 9.

The Spartan browser to be built into Windows 10 adopts features from Google's Chrome and from Safari, the Apple browser for Macs and Windows.

Windows 10 will use a personal assistant patterned after Siri, Apple's voice assistant on the iPhone and iPad, adding voice search to the new browser.

Windows 10 will be able to run standard Windows programs and so-called Metro apps side-by-side. Metro apps have large tile-shaped icons and use a touch interface on tablets. Microsoft stumbled with Windows 8 by hiding Windows 8's "Classic" mode, which looks and works like Windows 7, from new users on home PCs. (Note: If you're using Windows 8 or 8.1, you can turn off the toy-like Metro mode by following the instructions in this Technofile column: www.technofileonline.com/texts/tec010415.html.)