Forcing IE11 user to switch to Edge

Kieran McCarthy, writing at The Register:

Microsoft will forcibly push users off Internet Explorer and onto Edge next month, depending on the websites they visit.

Users will find that after they download and install the latest version of Edge, version 87, if they open one of a 1,000-plus websites declared to be “incompatible” with Internet Explorer, the page will automatically open in Edge instead.

Well, that’s one way to get people to stop using IE11, I suppose. The fact that Microsoft are having to resort to this extreme measure speaks volumes about the dogged persistence of Internet Explorer in remaining a thorn in the Internet’s side.

However…

There are workarounds if you don’t want to use the Chromium-based Edge: Microsoft has provided a guide for sysadmins to apply group policies that will allow the redirect to happen with a warning, or without a warning, or stop the redirect altogether. Non-enterprise customers that want to stop the redirect will either have to dig around in the registry or uninstall Edge.

So, in typical Microsoft fashion, those with lots of money, or a masochistic streak, can continue in ‘bliss’.

Beginning November 30, 2020, the Microsoft Teams web app will no longer support IE11. From August 2021, the remaining Microsoft 365 apps and services will no longer support IE11. And from March 2021, the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop app (non-Chromium version) will not receive new security updates.

Of course, this won’t do squat for those ageing computers out there with older versions of either Windows or Internet Explorer, or the many embedded systems that are normally hidden from view. But that will not be Microsoft’s problem, or a problem for the Internet at large.

I hope. 🤞