Microsoft Officially Announces the End of Internet Explorer May 20, 2021 16:47 GMT Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10 Now that the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge has reached its maturity, Microsoft can continue its long-term browsing strategy, with the next step coming down to the demise of Internet Explorer. Already bundled with Microsoft Edge as a dedicated mode, Internet Explorer now makes little sense as a desktop application, and this is the reason Microsoft now plans to retire it. In other words, Internet Explorer is going away as a stand-alone application, and the browser would continue to live on exclusively as a feature of Microsoft Edge.