Nearly 370M IE users have just 6 weeks to upgrade

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Nearly 370 million Internet Explorer users have just six weeks to upgrade their browsers or switch to one from a Microsoft rival, new data showed today.

 

In August 2014, Microsoft took Internet Explorer (IE) users by surprise when it announced that most had to be running IE11 by Jan. 12, six weeks from today. After that date, Microsoft will support IE9 only on the barely used Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and IE10 only on Windows Server 2012. All others, including those with devices powered by Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, must run IE11 or Edge.

 

According to data released by measurement vendor Net Applications, 44.8% of all IE users ran a soon-to-be-outdated edition of the browser.

 

 

That's proved disastrous for IE's user share, which has plummeted more than nine percentage points so far this year. IE ended November with 50% of the browser market by Net Applications' measurement, a low it hasn't seen in decades. Meanwhile, Chrome's user share has jumped 8.8 points thus far in 2015, and now accounts for 31.4% of all browsers.

 

Companies that require older editions of IE to run Web apps or services can upgrade to IE11, then rely on that browser's Enterprise Mode to mimic the older versions' rendering engines. Last week, Microsoft announced some enhancements to Enterprise Mode, including support for HTTP ports, and issued a kit that walks IT administrators through the chore of configuring Enterprise Mode. That kit can be downloaded from here.

 

Another option for laggards who need backward compatibility with aged apps and services is to upgrade to IE11 but deploy Browsium Ion, an add-on that lets IT administrators enable legacy IE-dependent apps in IE11. In a recent interview, Gary Schare, president of Browsium, admitted that Microsoft's IE11-or-else edict had been good for business.

 

"We've seen an uptick," Schare said. "Most of our business is in IE11 migration. Companies are attempting to beat the deadline, and they come to us when they have a number of legacy apps and they've run out of alternatives."

 

Consumers with a version of IE on the hit list and able to run IE11 on their PCs can download the browser from Microsoft's website.

 

Source: computerworld