After 28 years of serving Microsoft Windows users, Internet Explorer is finally being retired. Some users may rejoice, but this may have a bigger impact than expected. Reduced competition in the browser space has become a recurring theme, Some older or not recently updated websites may become inaccessible, and even some Windows internet setting will be harder to find for some users.

The competition of web browsers has been around for some time but is slowly shrinking away. Internet Explorer has been decreasing slowly over time going from 0.45% in January 2022 to 0.25% in January 2023. Leaving major competitors Chrome with 65.43%, Safari with 18.69%, and Edge with 4.46% with others accounting for 29.86% of web browsers being used, according to GlobalStats.

Websites that were made before alternate browsers became popular will likely be left inaccessible by modern versions of Windows. Some of the most common websites being ones that are not used as much or have not been recently updated to include support for newer standards. One example being IPMI, on older server motherboards, which is only able to be updated with a new firmware release, which will be very unlikely as even modern server hardware can get left behind without updates. Especially if it does not break key functionality of the motherboard.

Even Windows’ “Internet Options” menu will be harder to find due to it only being consistently linked to by Internet Explorer. The Windows Search menu can sometimes find it depending on the build of Windows, recent updates, and keywords being used to search. This may not be an issue for many users but some require the accessibility to these sub-menus to be able to test certain features and operate some older java applications. Some modern browsers even rely on options set within the menu. Without an easy way to access it, users and developers may have a much more difficult time getting software written or set up the way that they like it.