You 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 Systems | Supported Internet Explorer Version |
| Windows Vista SP2 | Internet Explorer 9 |
| Windows 7 SP1 | Internet Explorer 11 |
| Windows 8.1 Update | Internet Explorer 11 |
| Windows Server Operating Systems | Supported Internet Explorer Version |
| Windows Server 2008 SP2 | Internet Explorer 9 |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 | Internet Explorer 11 |
| Windows Server 2012 | Internet Explorer 10 |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 | Internet 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? |