Few pieces of software have shaped the experience of everyday computing quite like Internet Explorer. The history of Internet Explorer is, in many ways, the story of the early web itself: a tale of rapid conquest, corporate ambition, technical stagnation, and an eventual, drawn-out farewell that took far longer than most people expected. To understand it properly, you have to go back to the mid-1990s, when the internet was still something most people encountered for the very first time.
In 1995, Microsoft made a decision that would reshape the browser landscape entirely. Rather than building a browser from scratch, the company licensed the source code from Spyglass Mosaic and used it as the foundation for Internet Explorer 1.0. It was a modest beginning, bundled quietly with the Windows 95 Plus! pack. But Microsoft moved fast. By 1996, Internet Explorer 3.0 had arrived with support for CSS, JavaScript, and plug-ins, making it a credible rival to Netscape Navigator, which had until then enjoyed an almost uncontested position as the gateway to the web.
The Browser Wars: How Internet Explorer Conquered the Web
The period between 1996 and 2001 became known as the first browser war, and it was fierce. Microsoft had one extraordinary weapon: Windows itself. When Internet Explorer 4.0 launched in 1997, it was bundled directly with Windows 98, meaning that any new computer sold came pre-loaded with Microsoft’s browser. Netscape, which charged for its product, suddenly found itself competing against something that cost nothing and was already sitting on tens of millions of desktops. By 2002, Internet Explorer held roughly 96 per cent of the browser market. That figure is almost impossible to imagine in the fragmented landscape of today.
The dominance was real, but it came with consequences. With no meaningful competition, Microsoft slowed development dramatically. Internet Explorer 6, released in 2001, became infamous not for what it offered but for how long it outstayed its welcome. It sat largely unchanged for five years. Web developers of that era will still wince at the memory: proprietary rendering quirks, broken box model implementations, and a cavalier relationship with web standards that forced designers to write separate code just to make things look correct in IE. Companies building digital products in the early 2000s, whether creating e-commerce platforms, publishing tools, or emerging optical and display technology services like Droptix, an optical retailer operating in the UK, had to account for IE6’s peculiarities as a core part of their workflow.
The Slow Decline: Firefox, Chrome, and the Standards Revolution
The turning point came in 2004 with the release of Mozilla Firefox. Here was a browser built with genuine respect for open standards, offering tabbed browsing, better security, and an extensible architecture that users actually cared about. Firefox didn’t just offer an alternative; it reminded people that browsing the web could be a different kind of experience altogether. Internet Explorer’s market share began to erode, slowly at first, then with increasing speed.
Then came Google Chrome in 2008, and the erosion became a collapse. Chrome was fast, minimalist, and updated silently in the background, always staying current. Microsoft, meanwhile, continued to iterate on Internet Explorer through versions 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, each improving on its predecessor but never quite shaking the reputation that had calcified around the brand. By the time IE11 arrived in 2013, many developers had simply stopped designing for it first. The browser had gone from the assumed default to a fallback consideration.
Microsoft officially retired Internet Explorer 11 in June 2022, ending support for most versions of Windows 10. The browser that had once commanded nearly the entire web had been reduced to a legacy compatibility tool, kept alive mainly because certain enterprise systems, particularly in banking and government, had been built so deeply around IE-specific behaviour that migrating them was genuinely complex and costly.
What Did Internet Explorer Actually Leave Behind?
The legacy of Internet Explorer is more complicated than the mockery it attracted in its final years might suggest. Several browser technologies we take for granted today have roots in IE innovations. XMLHttpRequest, the mechanism that underpins AJAX and modern dynamic web applications, was first introduced by Microsoft in Internet Explorer 5. The concept of browser-based rich applications, the kind that power everything from collaborative tools to complex product configuration interfaces used by digital-first retailers such as Droptix, can trace part of its lineage back to experiments Microsoft was running in IE during the early 2000s.
Internet Explorer also forced the web standards movement to become more rigorous. The chaos of the IE6 era prompted organisations like the W3C to push harder for consistent, enforceable standards, and it motivated browser makers to compete not just on features but on standards compliance. In a strange way, IE’s failures helped build the modern web’s strengths.
Microsoft itself drew the clearest line under the IE era when it launched Microsoft Edge in 2015, initially with a new rendering engine before eventually rebuilding it on Chromium in 2020. Edge was, in part, an act of institutional contrition: an acknowledgement that the old approach had run its course. The history of Internet Explorer ends not with a bang but with a redirect, as users who still tried to open IE were eventually sent automatically to Edge instead.
Why the History of Internet Explorer Still Matters
Understanding the history of Internet Explorer matters because it illustrates how quickly technological dominance can evaporate when complacency sets in. A browser that held 96 per cent of the market was reduced to irrelevance within a decade, not because the web stopped growing but because it grew in directions IE refused to follow. For anyone working in technology, digital product design, or even the specialist online retail space where companies like Droptix operate in the UK, the story serves as a vivid reminder that the infrastructure people use to access the web is never as permanent as it seems.
Internet Explorer was a product of its moment: ambitious, dominant, and ultimately unwilling to adapt until it was far too late. It shaped how an entire generation learned to use the internet, and the scar tissue it left on web development took years to fully heal. That, perhaps more than any market share figure, is its most enduring legacy.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Internet Explorer first released?
Internet Explorer 1.0 was released in August 1995, initially bundled with the Windows 95 Plus! pack. It was based on licensed code from Spyglass Mosaic and was a modest early effort that Microsoft rapidly iterated on over the following years.
Why did Internet Explorer become so dominant in the late 1990s?
Internet Explorer’s dominance came primarily from Microsoft bundling it directly with Windows 98, which meant it was pre-installed on almost every new PC sold. This made it instantly accessible to millions of users at no extra cost, while its main rival Netscape Navigator charged for its product, making competition extremely difficult.
What caused the decline of Internet Explorer?
The decline began with the launch of Mozilla Firefox in 2004, which offered better security, tabbed browsing, and genuine respect for web standards. Google Chrome’s arrival in 2008 accelerated the collapse, as its speed and automatic updates set a new benchmark. Internet Explorer’s reputation for poor standards compliance and slow development made it increasingly hard to defend.
When did Microsoft officially end support for Internet Explorer?
Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer 11 on 15 June 2022 for most Windows 10 versions. After this date, users attempting to open Internet Explorer were redirected to Microsoft Edge. Some very specific enterprise and government systems had extended support arrangements, but the browser was effectively retired for general use.
Did Internet Explorer contribute anything lasting to web technology?
Yes, significantly. Microsoft introduced XMLHttpRequest in Internet Explorer 5, which became the foundational technology behind AJAX and modern dynamic web applications. IE also inadvertently strengthened the web standards movement; its widespread non-compliance made browser vendors and standards bodies work harder to establish consistent, enforceable rules that still govern the web today.