6/14/2022
Microsoft is officially "retiring" Microsoft Internet Explorer.
What exactly does that mean? Not much really. Everyone knew this was coming the moment they pushed out Microsoft Edge. What this means is that after an "update", users of standard Windows 10 who try to launch the Internet Explorer application via the desktop icons will instead see a dialog that redirects them to Microsoft Edge. This does not affect Windows 11, which already omitted the Internet Explorer application icon.
But make no mistake, it is not completely gone. Its rotting guts will be in there for a long time yet. Edge's Internet Explorer mode, that uses the Internet Explorer rendering engine, will remain available. Other Windows applications that similarly embed Internet Explorer's rendering engine should continue to work for the time being.
Back in the IE 4 days, Microsoft was practically breaking developer's legs if they didn't embed IE in their applications or do something that required it. That legacy shit is everywhere, and if Microsoft just magically broke all compatibility with existing Windows applications, people might accidentally consider switching to an OS besides Windows.
I told everyone embedding IE was a bad idea, but nobody listened to me.
Also, the other day there was a news story that Microsoft apparently wants to prevent people from booting from regular magnetic hard drives, instead requiring everyone to use SSDs. There was some crap about Microsoft wanting to force OEMs to make systems with only SSDs. That is just beyond stupid. If having SSDs over magnetic hard drives was so much better that everyone was willing to PAY the extra money for them, then they would. No need for Microsoft to make more fake minimum requirements.