This is part of a longer article called Supporting obsolete software – what’s the deal?  which I wrote to explain my thoughts and reasoning for no longer supporting old browsers and operating systems. I feel that in most of my reflective journals I keep talking about supporting Internet Explorer and going into great depth about why I don’t spend time supporting it anymore, so instead of repeating myself in every other post I thought I’d just keep referring back to this article.

What makes Internet Explorer ‘obsolete’?

Quite simply, the fact that Microsoft is no longer developing it and adding new features to it. All they are offering are security updates to protect against vulnerabilities. The lack of feature updates means that IE is beginning to become unable to run some modern websites that rely on rendering engines and modern web standards that IE does not, and never will support. This means that as a browser, IE is beginning to provide an insufficient browsing experience and is therefore ‘obsolete’.

Microsoft discontinued development of Internet Explorer in July 2015 when Windows 10 was released with Edge as the new default browser.

If you must worry about Internet Explorer, only worry about the last version

The first thing that must be known about supporting Internet Explorer in this day and age is that only the last version of it (11) should even be considered. I say this for three reasons:

• Firstly, Internet Explorer 11 is compatible with Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 which are all still supported by Microsoft and collectively make up around 94% of the Windows market share (as can be seen in the graph below).
• Secondly, Internet Explorer 11 is the final version of Internet Explorer and has not had a major update for three years and was released five years ago – so it is an ‘old browser’ but it is still supported and maintained by Microsoft with security updates, even if no new features are being developed for it.
• Thirdly. despite Microsoft’s best efforts Edge has not been a successful business/enterprise replacement for Internet Explorer, thus many organisations still use Internet Explorer 11 as the default browser due to the fact it can easily be controlled with group policies, is the only browser that can run ActiveX controls and because it is compatible with Windows 7 which many organisations still use.

It’s true that Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 are also compatible with Windows 7 and some developers may be concerned about trying to support these older versions. There’s no need to try and support them on Windows 7 because 11 can be installed via Windows Update – which also means that it has likely been automatically installed. Internet Explorer 11 is included in Windows 8.1 and 10.

Let’s look at the market share of the six most recent versions of Windows:

Looking at the market share for anything older than Windows XP is a waste of time since older versions will only be used by enthusiasts on older systems looking to rekindle a nostalgic experience, not attempt to use the modern web on a 20 year old operating system.

The Windows versions that IE 11 cannot be installed on (Windows XP, Vista and 8) make up around 6% of the Windows market share, so it’s unlikely that a user is going to access your site from one of those operating systems. Also bear in mind that with IE 8 being the latest version compatible with XP and IE 9 with Vista, users of these operating systems will likely be using another browser anyway since these antiquated versions of Internet Explorer do not provide a positive browsing experience. At the time of writing, the latest versions of Chrome (49), Firefox (52) and Opera (36) that are compatible with XP and Vista are a couple of years old. They’re old – but not as old as the seven year old IE 9 and nine year old IE 8 from the previous decade – so XP and Vista users are likely using a different browser anyway.

Windows 8 makes up around 3% of that 6% market share and Windows 8 users can simply upgrade to 8.1 for free to get IE 11, so technically the share is reduced to just 3%. That’s not enough to endure the pain of trying to make a modern website work with antiquated versions of Internet Explorer that XP and Vista users aren’t using anyway. Remember that IE 9 barely supports CSS 3 and IE 10 just about supports it, so imagine how your CSS 3-dependant websites are going to look on IE 9 and 10! Even more horrific is that support for modern interpretations of JavaScript and jQuery in IE 8 and older is practically non-existent. Imagine that!

It’s old data, but even back in December 2015 around half of all web traffic from IE was from IE 11, so even three years ago there was no point in thinking about IE 10 or older.

How many people are still using Internet Explorer in 2018?

The next thing to consider once you have forgotten about IE 10 and older is Internet Explorer’s market share. How many people are actually still accessing the web from Internet Explorer? The answer, according to StatCounter is around 3%.

 

This data likely includes mobile browsers too (hence why Safari’s share looks high and Firefox’s looks pretty low) but that’s OK because mobile browsing makes up such a big part of web browsing in this day and age.

Let’s keep this short and simple: 3.13% is a very low percentage, compared to Google Chrome’s 57.69%. Once upon a time Internet Explorer’s market share was this high – in fact it was so high that various governments and the EU accused Microsoft of monopolising the web browser market by including Internet Explorer with Windows and not making Windows users aware of alternative browsers! These days are ancient history now with Chrome being the clear favourite on the desktop and on mobile too.

One reason why Internet Explorer’s share has plummeted is due to the fact that a mobile version of it no longer exists and in a world where just over 50% of all web traffic is from mobile devices, that’s not good for increasing browser market share.

The last mobile version of Internet Explorer was again version 11 which was released with Windows Phone 8.1 back in April 2014 – and that’s the only operating system it can run on. We all know that Windows Phone’s market share has taken a nose dive over the past few years and in October 2017 Microsoft discontinued the platform, so that means that a tiny tiny amount of people are browsing the web from Mobile Internet Explorer. If the data below showing mobile operating system market share is anything to go by, then potentially close to 0% of the market share is still using the browser!

If Mobile Internet Explorer is still able to display most modern web pages, it’s just by coincidence and almost certainly not by design given Windows Phone’s low market share. There is no need to spend time and effort making a website look good on a mobile version of Internet Explorer because so few people use it.

Those who are still using Windows Phones are generally using Windows 10 Mobile on their device now and so are browsing using the Edge browser. It’s the same Edge browser that runs on desktop computers running Windows 10. Edge is a current browser and has some market share behind it so it is worthwhile testing sites in it. If they work fine in the desktop version of Edge when the browser window is resized, they’ll work fine in Edge on a Windows 10 Mobile smartphone, so you can still make your sites accessible to Windows Mobile users that way.

Does Internet Explorer generally have a big enough market share to warrant developing solely for it? Not really – and the only direction its market share is going in is south. Just look at the trend since 2009 (according to StatCounter again).

Does my target audience still use Internet Explorer?

Only you as a researcher or a developer can answer this. Statistically, they likely don’t, but in practice they may.

Although Google Chrome has it’s own Group Policy section in the Windows Server Group Policy Editor (meaning that IT administrators can manage and modify software across networks), Internet Explorer still remains one of the most configurable browsers through Group Policy which a lot of Windows-based domains use to configure and manage networked machines. The other thing that keeps IE prominent in the business market is the fact that a lot of business applications require ActiveX plugins which are only compatible with Internet Explorer. The fact that IE is still used a lot in enterprises is one of the reasons why Microsoft continues to provide security updates for the browser and patch endless ActiveX exploits. That being said, many organisations who have not upgraded from Windows XP have been forced to switch to Google Chrome or another browser in their enterprise since Internet Explorer 8 no longer provides a sufficient or safe browsing experience.

However, despite Microsoft feeling that enterprises would remain loyal to Internet Explorer, the development of new software that doesn’t require the use of ActiveX controls, the rapid discontinuation of Adobe Flash Player (and the fact it is built into Chrome) and the fact that as each day goes on, Internet Explorer becomes less and less compatible with the modern web because of its outdated rendering engines, has meant that by May 2017 some sources were saying that Google Chrome is now also the preferred browser in the enterprise – as well as on the personal desktop and smartphone!

Historically Internet Explorer usage remained very high in certain regions – typically in Asia and developing markets – which meant that if you wanted to build a website that worked globally then compatibility with Internet Explorer was a must. However, browser market share statistics for China in March 2018 show that once again, Chrome is the favoured browser.

Usage of Internet Explorer in China is slightly higher than the world as a whole (about 1% higher), but still over half of the web traffic from China is thought to come from Chrome. Data for the whole of Asia is even more interesting with Internet Explorer not even being one of the six most popular browsers and the Samsung Browser on Android therefore holding a higher market share! It’s likely that in the developing world Windows is no longer a popular choice with Android smartphones being the computer of choice for the emerging markets since they are usually inexpensive and readily-available.

Is your audience using Internet Explorer? Very likely no, but before you embark on a web development project it is important to find out if any stakeholders involved with your project are.

‘Should I support Internet Explorer?’ I hear you ask – here’s the answer!

You should definitely not support Internet Explorer 10 and older given that these versions are not compatible on versions of Windows that Microsoft still supports. The chances of your audience never using Internet Explorer is very high looking at all of the data above. This generally signals that no, you do not need to worry about Internet Explorer compatibility in 2018. Instead you should focus your efforts on supporting popular browsers such as Chrome and Safari and up-and-coming browsers such as the Samsung Browser.

There’s no harm in occasionally trying your website in Internet Explorer and seeing how it looks. If it looks good then that’s great – Internet Explorer 11 isn’t new but it’s not so old that it can’t display anything, so the chances are that it will look just ‘OK’ – but probably not as good as it would in a more modern browser. If your site doesn’t look good in Internet Explorer at all then it is easy enough to use HTML or a JavaScript script to redirect the user to a page informing them to use another browser.

Hopefully the data included in this post will help make that decision easier for you, but sometimes stakeholders and project managers who are not always best-informed or are set in their ways are the ones who decide this. If you have any leverage on the subject whatsoever then try to encourage your stakeholders and managers to only support modern software.

As designers and developers, knowing which platforms to support and deciding rationally about is one of the many decisions that we have to make early on in the software development process.

The point that I want you to take away from this article is this: remember that whilst you are fiddling around trying to get your app, website or game to run on obsolete software, not only are you potentially making it function worse on supported software, you are missing the present. You are missing learning about what can be done with the technology of today and what might be possible with the technology of tomorrow to make your product stand out from the crowd. You are missing time to develop your work and make it better, faster, more reliable, more impressive. You are missing the potential to reach out to a new target audience – and all for what? You want your app to somehow still be functional on Windows XP despite the fact it’s been unsupported for 4 years and is used by a tiny minority of people?

What a waste.

The exception

The exception is if you need to develop a web app that uses ActiveX controls or you need to a develop a site that a stakeholder has stated must be compatible with Internet Explorer. At this point in time, it’s a pain and a shame to do this, but if you have any leverage on the topic please only worry about compatibility in IE 11 since that is the version of IE your stakeholders should be using. Using an older version exposes you to security risks (a really bad idea if you need to develop an ActiveX app given how many nasty exploits exist for it!) and makes developing web pages extremely difficult given that modern IDEs encourage you to code using modern web standards such as HTML 5, CSS 3 and JavaScript and jQuery which are not fully compatible with versions of Internet Explorer older than 11. Even Internet Explorer 11 has trouble interpreting HTML 5 and CSS code implemented into the language since its last major updated in 2015 – for example IE 11 cannot interpret ‘viewport’ measurements correctly! Using viewport in IE 11 often results in a stretched image.

The future

Part of being a great developer and designer is preempting the future and adapting. If you choose to support Internet Explorer 11 how you do plan to keep creating websites that work fine on IE 11’s dated and limited rendering engine but also work perfectly on the up-to-date engines of the other browsers? You will make a separate site for Internet Explorer that uses a script to detect Internet Explorer and redirect the user to an ‘IE-friendly’ version of your site whilst the modern browsers get the latest and greatest version or will you somehow code a site that displays fine in all of the browsers. The former takes a lot of work but the latter is near impossible, even at this stage where IE 11 is ‘only’ 5 years old. I say ‘only’ 5 years old because it could theoretically continue to receive security updates until 2023 at the earliest – another 5 years! Imagine the web 5 years ago – is it the same as the web today? The web in 5 years time will be a very place to what it is today, not least because new and exciting technology like VR, AR and increased mobile traffic will be shaping the web in the 2020s. Internet Explorer 11 is not going to be compatible with any of that but guess what – Chrome, Firefox, Opera and even Edge will be. You could miss out on ‘the next big thing’ and a new target audience by worrying about supporting a dated browser that somehow is still getting the occasional security update from Microsoft 10 years after its initial release.

 

Bibliography

Clicky.com. (2018). Web browsers by version (Global marketshare) | Clicky. [online] Available at: https://clicky.com/marketshare/global/web-browsers/versions/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

StatCounter Global Stats. (2018). Browser Market Share Worldwide | StatCounter Global Stats. [online] Available at: http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

StatCounter Global Stats. (2018). Desktop Windows Version Market Share Worldwide | StatCounter Global Stats. [online] Available at: http://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/worldwide/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

Maccherone, L. (2016). Analysis of Browser User/Market-share, or So Long! IE8, 9 and 10 – Pendo Blog. [online] Pendo Blog. Available at: https://blog.pendo.io/2016/01/14/analysis-of-browser-usermarket-share-or-so-long-ie8-9-and-10/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

Statista. (2018). Mobile percentage of website traffic 2017 | Statistic. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

Keizer, G. (2017). King Chrome: Microsoft’s browsers sidelined on its own OS. [online] Computerworld. Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3198479/microsoft-windows/king-chrome-microsofts-browsers-sidelined-on-its-own-os.html [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

StatCounter Global Stats. (2018). Browser Market Share China | StatCounter Global Stats. [online] Available at: http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/all/china [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

StatCounter Global Stats. (2018). Browser Market Share Asia | StatCounter Global Stats. [online] Available at: http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/all/asia [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].

 

Lang, B. (2017). Today’s Firefox Update Brings Rift and Vive WebVR Support to Everyone. [online] Road to VR. Available at: https://www.roadtovr.com/todays-firefox-update-brings-rift-vive-webvr-support-everyone/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].