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

Posted by Soulskill on 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.

7 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Clickbaity summary title by Moheeheeko · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Clickbaity summary title by sunderland56 · · Score: 1, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Clickbaity summary title by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    3. Re:Clickbaity summary title by Golden_Rider · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  2. Oh Happy Days by NaughtyNimitz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Finally we can start building proper websites without IE8 hacks.

  3. Summary not the full story, surprise, surprise. by dstyle5 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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."

  4. Re:My PC should keep working w/o gratuitous UI cha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Unfortunately rearranging the furniture is pretty much all MS have left to milk money out of windows. Updates stopped providing serious improvements to useability over a decade ago, most of the show-stopping problems have been sorted, so all they can do is keep on with the meaningless "New! Shiny! Steering wheel relocated!" and hope no-one notices.