RIP Old Internet Explorer – Impacts on Your Web Strategy
On Tuesday, January 12, 2016, Microsoft will end support for all versions of Internet Explorer (IE) prior to IE 11. Organizations currently running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 operating system will likely not notice at all as they have the most recent version of IE installed on their workstations. But, this could spell trouble for any organization still running their computers on Windows XP, which is not supported, or an older version of IE on Windows 7.
“Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10,” Microsoft stated in its announcement.
This means that, after January 12th, Microsoft will not provide additional security updates to protect pre-IE 11 users from cyber vulnerabilities, malware or viruses. Regular security updates are critical in protecting computers and networks from malicious cyber attacks and viruses that could destroy or steal confidential information.
So, if your organization is still using Windows XP or previous versions of IE, you will need to make changes in your technology infrastructure to address the problem. Your technology administrators are likely already working on this problem if they have not already solved it.
About 8% of browser sessions use one of the soon to be out of date browsers. The positive impact of this change will lead to the end of older browsers that do not support dynamic HTML and Javascript capabilities. For some organizations, this is a sign that websites need to be ready for dynamic updates. No more excuses for using Adobe Flash.
January 12th’s end of support will force the hands of many organizations that have been holding out on updating their workstations, networks and websites. But this may be a good thing as this era of smart browsers gives us all an opportunity to provide rich user experiences that are less vulnerable to hackers and malicious code.