Microsoft Internet Explorer 12You may have seen articles recently on other websites and blogs claiming that as from today, 12th January 2016, Microsoft will end support for all versions of Internet Explorer, except for IE 11.

This isn’t strictly true!

What in fact Microsoft have announced is that “Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates“.

What this essentially means is that if you’re a Windows 7 user with Internet Explorer 9 or 10 installed, only Internet Explorer 11 will continue to be supported going forward.

However, if you’re a Windows Vista user, the highest version of Internet Explorer that can physically be installed on that operating system is IE 9. Therefore, if you’re currently running IE 7 or 8, only IE 9 will be supported on your operating system going forward, so you should update to IE 9.

The following table from Microsoft outlines which versions of Internet Explorer they will continue to support as from today:

Windows Desktop Operating SystemsSupported Internet Explorer Version
Windows Vista SP2Internet Explorer 9
Windows 7 SP1Internet Explorer 11
Windows 8.1 UpdateInternet Explorer 11
Windows Server Operating SystemsSupported Internet Explorer Version
Windows Server 2008 SP2Internet Explorer 9
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1Internet Explorer 11
Windows Server 2012Internet Explorer 10
Windows Server 2012 R2Internet Explorer 11

Our web-based room booking and resource scheduling software, MIDAS, is currently supported in IE9+ and all other major browsers.

Over the years we have previously dropped support for MIDAS in IE6 in 2011, IE7 in 2012, and most recently IE8 in 2013.

Whilst we have no immediate plans to drop support for IE9, it’s likely that our support for this aging browser will within the next couple of years. Therefore, if you’re using an older Windows operating system, like using Internet Explorer, and can’t update to a more recent version of Windows, we’d encourage you to at least ensure that your browser is the most up-to-date it can be for your particular operating system.

You might also be interested in:
Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge now available
Could Internet Explorer go Open Source?