Microsoft’s historic ending of support for Windows XP generated headlines the world over, sparking Y2K like concerns over instant virus attacks on the day the company stopped giving technical help and updates to users. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as expected, but now it seems there’s a whole new issue to worry about, well, with regards to the ending of support for old products.
Microsoft have recently announced that support is ending for Internet Explorer 8 too, patches and customer service will also be meeting their end within 18 months around 2016, as updated versions of the software are available and numerous. Internet Explorer is now in its 11th iteration, being active for 5 years since its launch alongside Windows 7, whilst the Internet Explorer browser has been active since 1995, meaning it’s around 18 years old. Now we feel old too…
According to the company’s figures Internet Explorer 8 runs on 20 percent of PC’s running a desktop operating system, and still accounts for 6% of global web visits. It says a lot about the technology community’s slow reaction to new versions. All you need to do is download the latest version guys. Find it here.
However, in some cases, it’s a little hard to update to the latest version. If you’re running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012, you can’t actually update to Internet Explorer 11.
What’s worse is that Microsoft is also reducing support for Internet Explorer 9 and 10, which are the only versions that run on the aforementioned Windows versions, with support now limited to these operating systems only. In other words, if you have IE 9 or IE 10 and you’re not on one of the above, there won’t be any more support or patches coming.
This reduction of support may be something to do with Microsoft’s recent downsizing operation and decision to merge all operating systems, including those on mobile and tablet, into one overarching system.
It’s a good time to change your browser, or upgrade your operating system. In the case of ending support for Internet Explorer, on any version, this leaves the browser vulnerable to viruses or other threats, as the security holes won’t be patched. If you can, get hold of Internet Explorer 11 as soon as you can.
Source: Microsoft Blog
Via: ZDnet