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Internet Explorer Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Ends Support For Internet Explorer 8-10 and Windows 8 (venturebeat.com) 155

Posted by Soulskill from the done-and-done dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft today ended support for old versions of Internet Explorer, including IE8, IE9, and IE10, as well as Windows 8. For the browsers, the company has also released a final patch (KB3123303) that includes the latest cumulative security updates and an "End of Life" upgrade notification. In short, the final patch will nag Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users to upgrade to Internet Explorer: A new tab will automatically open the download IE page. It doesn’t appear Microsoft has plans to push similar notifications for Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2 users, but this isn’t too surprising: They can’t upgrade to IE11 or Edge without upgrading their operating system. While support for Windows 8 has ended, Windows 8.1 will have Mainstream Support until January 9, 2018 and Extended Support until January 10, 2023.
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Microsoft Ends Support For Internet Explorer 8-10 and Windows 8 More

Microsoft Ends Support For Internet Explorer 8-10 and Windows 8

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  • Clickbaity summary title (Score:3, Informative)

    by Moheeheeko ( 1682914 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @08:12PM (#51290799)
    You cant say Microsoft is no longer supporting Win8 in the title and later in the article clarify that they are supporting Win8.1, they are the same fucking thing, one just has more updates to it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by sunderland56 ( 621843 )

      Legally, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 are different products. There are certain legal requirements for length of support.

      Personally I'm not that worried; still using Firefox on Windows XP. Works fine.

      • +1 agree. XP 4 me.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by swalve ( 1980968 )
        What legal requirements?
        • The expiry date for Windows 8.1 is different from that of Windows 8 - that one

          • The expiry date for Windows 8.1 is different from that of Windows 8 - that one

            Now, now, don't quote facts. That's not how we idiots play in slashdot.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by swalve ( 1980968 )
            Who legislates how long manufacturers must support their old products?
      • 'cause who would ever need more than 3.5G of memory, right? Is that you again Mr. Gates?

    • Re:Clickbaity summary title (Score:5, Informative)

      by Curunir_wolf ( 588405 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @08:31PM (#51290865) Homepage Journal

      You cant say Microsoft is no longer supporting Win8 in the title and later in the article clarify that they are supporting Win8.1, they are the same fucking thing, one just has more updates to it.

      Not really - it's a different kernel, including boot loader and everything. You can't just say "it's more updates" - that would mean Windows 7 is the same as Windows 10 because "more updates".

      I wrote a certification book on Windows 8 that then had to have tons of revisions for Windows 8.1 because we (and the publisher) decided it was not worth doing a production run for the Windows 8 manuals. Trust me, it's a different operating system.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by epyT-R ( 613989 )

        Its kernel was updated, yes, but so was winxp's over win2k's.. They all hail from NT. It's really the same operating system underneath all the retread they've managed to layer on top of it over the years.

        • Your car's tires are the same old damned tires. You just wrapped new rubber on the wheels...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Calydor ( 739835 )

          Did you also say that WinXP's support should have been pulled when Win2K's support was pulled?

      • http://windows.microsoft.com/e... [microsoft.com] disagrees with you.
        Windows 8 is supported until 2023, as long as you have the Windows 8.1 Update

      • Not really - it's a different kernel, including boot loader and everything.

        So? When do you really consider something new? Linux Kernel updates come out constantly but that doesn't magically include new support agreements for (e.g.) that specific version of Ubuntu. Likewise with the bootloader.

        To be honest as an end user I don't see much more different between Windows 8 / 8.1 and say Windows XP and XP with service packs applied. What changed under the hood is quite different and up to Microsoft, but since they've all but said Windows 8.1 is the equivalent of service packs I find it

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • When it's considered an upgrade instead of an update.

            When is that? Microsoft themselves have said it was an update, but then also they've gone out of their way to avoid calling it a service pack. That would break the convention.

            As an end user, you should know that Microsoft stopped supporting XP before XP SP1, then XP2 etc.

            Even with your example I don't see a difference. Windows 8 went out of support before Windows 8.1. I'm not entirely sure what your point was here.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          they've all but said Windows 8.1 is the equivalent of service packs

          "Service packs" usually don't end support for particular CPUs. Windows 8.1 requires CPU instructions that Windows 8 did not require. Replacing a CPU in a laptop just to run Windows 8.1 is usually impractical.

          • CPU instructions are frequently optional and don't require it either. This isn't the first time Microsoft has rolled out very CPU specific features in service packs, but this is a case where the instruction must not be optional i.e. a different compilation is required for support such as the 32bit version. To be fair users aren't let without recourse (install an alternate version of windows 8.1) and users affected are running some quite old hardware.

            But then drawing an arbitrary line like will install / won

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tepples ( 727027 )

              I challenge you to even boot Windows XP SP3 without causing massive amounts of memory paging and tearing out your hair in frustration on the same hardware.

              Windows XP Service Pack 3 potentially required a RAM upgrade. Windows 8.1 potentially required a CPU upgrade. On laptops, RAM upgrades are generally more practical than CPU upgrades.

              • So the difference between an update and an upgrade is defined by how difficult it is to get to run smoothly on your specific computer?

                My point here is that from the very start of this thread the entire discussion has been quite arbitrary with everyone adding their own pet definition of what it should be.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by tepples ( 727027 )

                  So the difference between an update and an upgrade is defined by how difficult it is to get to run smoothly on your specific computer?

                  To me, update means "download the latest list of packages", and upgrade means "download packages newer than the installed packages and install them". But because I was trying to answer outside the context of Debian APT, I'll try to use terms independent of a particular operating system's terminology: "minor upgrade" and "major upgrade".

                  You propose to define a major upgrade in part through breaking compatibility with a piece of hardware. I'm inclined to agree. To avoid "you are an edge case not worth serving

                  • the supermajority of computers on which the original product was intended to run

                    That's a good one but it only worked in the old days, not so much now. Rolling releases (I'm running Windows 10 but is it the first one or the second one, there are already 2) will break that definition.

                    Another definition is whether the proprietary software's publisher charges for the upgrade

                    That's also a good one, I think I like this one better because it ties it into something very tangibly affecting the user. But in the future of Windows as a service this may also not work. We have some reprieve since the freebies for Windows 7 upgrade are time limited, but if that goes away you're stuck.

    • They needed to call the updates 8.1 8.11 8.12 8.2

    • Support has ended for Windows XP.... We all know this. Support for Windows 7 will continue until 2021. Why the hell is the article saying that Windows 8 support has ended?

      • Re:Clickbaity summary title (Score:4, Insightful)

        by PRMan ( 959735 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @09:14PM (#51291051)
        Because you are now required to upgrade to 8.1 or 10 if you want support.
      • Except that you'll be forced to upgrade to Win10 by increasingly aggressive MS malware long before then...

      • Re:Clickbaity summary title (Score:5, Informative)

        by Golden_Rider ( 137548 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @11:42PM (#51291481)

        Windows 8.1 is a "service pack" for Windows 8. Microsoft only supports the "service pack-less" version of an OS for one year after the service pack has been made available. So, if you want support for your Windows 8 machine, you need to update to Windows 8.1. It is the same for Windows 7, by the way. Support for Windows 7 *without service pack 1* has already ended in 2013.

        • Interestingly enough, Win8 Enterprise doesn't actually get the automatic update to Win8.1. You can do an in-place upgrade using install media, but you can't get it from Windows Update, or from the Store, or anything like that. Nor does it nag you to upgrade.

          • Windows 8.1 is kind of a weird beast. In some ways, it's treated like a service pack for Windows 8, and in other ways, it's treated like a different OS than Windows 8.

  • Thanks, MS! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @08:12PM (#51290801)
    I mean it literally: Thanks, MS, for having the longest (free) support time for OS's of any commercial vendor today.

    • Re: Thanks, MS! (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You're welcome!!

      -Microsoft Spy Division

    • I mean it literally: Thanks, MS, for having the longest (free) support time for OS's of any commercial vendor today.

      I assume this is sarcastic, since this news story is about how Windows Vista (neither free as in beer nor speech) just got fucked before its promised EOL date. But in case you're being serious, I point out that RHEL and CentOS have about the same support life as Windows does. And those are *actually* free.

      • Eh? Extended support is ending for Vista on April 11, 2017. The date hasn't changed since at least 2012.

        • Windows Vista is (and has been stuck) with Internet Explorer 9 for some time now, as it stopped getting new versions of Internet Explorer once it dropped out of mainstream support. Of course, this means that the headline is also wrong, as Internet Explorer 9 is still supported for Vista users. This is true for other versions of IE 8-10 that are on supported OS's that cannot use a newer version.

          • Exactly. Everything is as promised in the lifecycle that Microsoft published years ago, so I have no idea what LichtSpektren was talking about when he said that Vista got f@#!ed before the promised EOL.

            It was never getting a newer version of IE, but the current version will be supported through its extended support period.

  • Oh Happy Days (Score:3, Informative)

    by NaughtyNimitz ( 763264 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @08:12PM (#51290803)

    Finally we can start building proper websites without IE8 hacks.

    • In fact, given that Microsoft has moved to Edge, and that others can use Chrome or Firefox/PaleMoon, isn't it safe to remove support for IE altogether (meaning even 11), and just test your web pages on Chrome, Firefox/PaleMoon, Safari and Opera?
      • According to statcounter IE11 has more than 10% of the market. That's twice Safari's share. But IE11 is more standards compliant, so maybe it's not as necessary as it was.

      • IE11 is stull supported, for legacy sites that need things which Edge doesn't provide (like ActiveX, or any of the other ~95% of IE's features that Edge doesn't have). It's mostly used by businesses, but anybody can use it, even on Win10.

        Of course, lots of people still aren't on Win10. You can't install Edge on Win7, or Win8.x. So no, IE11 is definitely not going away yet.

        I really wish they would just let IE use Edge's rendering engine. They could even call it... Edge mode! Fall back to Trident for legacy p

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
        It all comes down to the maketshare, not of the world, but of your userbase.

      • I've recently hit a few webpages that give me the "your browser is not supported" using a fully updated IE11 on Windows 7*. So it seems that there's a few sites out there that feel it's "safe" to ignore Internet Explorer users already.

        *this is a work computer, so it's not like I can use something else.

    • This is perfect timing! I got an issue forwarded from help desk today about a user unable to do pretty much anything in our portal. After investigating, turns out the problem is they are using IE8 and we don't advertise any 'minimum' requirements. I'm going to campaign tomorrow that we officially do not support this browser, and this will be good evidence to support my claim. Otherwise they'll have to pay for an extra week of dev work while I go through everything that isn't working the way it should an

    • IE 8 doesn't require hacks compared to IE 6. Now that one was a nightmare

    • Yeah, now we only have to struggle with Safari hacks. Safari is now the new IE6/7/8. Sigh.

  • Summary not the full story, surprise, surprise. (Score:5, Informative)

    by dstyle5 ( 702493 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @08:19PM (#51290825)
    The actual article is though, which is a nice change from a lot of recent articles on this subject:

    "Microsoft announced the old IE version cutoff date back in August 2014. At the time, the company said it would only support the following browser-operating system combinations: IE9 on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2; IE10 on Windows Server 2012; and IE11 on Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2. Since then, Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge have, of course, been released, so they’re supported as well."

  • Couldn't they end support for Windows 10, too? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @08:34PM (#51290883)
    Then it would finally be the year of the Linux desktop.

    • I'd say "that's what it would take" buy MacOS is still ahead of any of the OSes that use the Linux kernel (though not Android, but that's not a desktop OS).

    • And the next Ubuntu will the one with Unity 8 and Mir. Repeat the pray every release.

    • I am certain that we'll see airborne pigs long before we'll see Linux on the desktop. In fact, if you take all the worst parts of Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 and combine them into the worst UX ever created for Windows, it still beats every single Linux distribution for usability save Android. Linux on the desktop will not even happen after we've vacated earth due to the Sun turning into a Red Giant. Neither will Windows be either, but...

      Say after me: "Linux on the desktop is never going to happen.

  • The summary is saying that users will see a new tab that says "Support for Internet Explorer has ended. Upgrade to Internet Explorer."

    WTF?

    Do they mean "Upgrade to Edge"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      It'd probably take one of these forms:

      • Support for IE 7 on Windows Vista has ended. Upgrade to IE 9.
      • Support for IE 8 on Windows Vista has ended. Upgrade to IE 9.
      • Support for IE 8 on Windows 7 has ended. Upgrade to IE 11.
      • Support for IE 9 on Windows 7 has ended. Upgrade to IE 11.
      • Support for IE 10 on Windows 7 has ended. Upgrade to IE 11.
  • Guess it's time to upgrade to 9. What?
  • This is actually good news. We finally have a security vulnerability card to play for reducing the number of browser versions we have to support in business apps. My team has been trying drop "older" browser support in our partner (B2B) applications. 25% are still on IE7/8/9. This really restricts our ability to deliver certain types of functionality. Maybe now our and our partner security teams will gain enough leverage to force an upgrade...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      IE 7, which shipped on Windows Vista and ran on Windows XP, is no longer supported. IE 8, which shipped on Windows 7 and ran on Windows Vista and Windows XP. is supported only on versions of Windows Embedded derived from Windows XP, such as the "POSReady" thing that some Windows XP diehards installed to take advantage of continued security updates to XP-based cash registers. IE 9, which ran on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, is supported on Windows Vista and the version of Server derived therefrom. On Windows

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