IE浏览器从当年的独霸市场，到跌下神坛，再到如今几乎没人再用，26岁高龄的它寿终正寝只是时间问题。近日，微软终于宣布，将于2022年6月15日终止对IE浏览器的支持。

 

The end is finally near for Internet Explorer, one of Microsoft's most-reviled products that refused to die. Microsoft announced this week that it will end support for Internet Explorer 11 on June 15, 2022.

微软最招人恨却又不肯退出历史舞台的IE浏览器终于要走到尽头了。微软本周宣布，将于2022年6月15日终止对IE11浏览器的支持。

 

In August 2020, Microsoft turned its back on IE for its own products. Workplace chat software Teams stopped working with IE last fall, and its 365 apps (including Office) will no longer work on IE by mid-summer 2021.

2020年8月，微软自己的产品开始弃用IE浏览器。去年秋天微软职场聊天软件Teams不再和IE浏览器兼容，明年仲夏起包括Office在内的微软365个应用也将不再支持IE浏览器。

 

Once the most-used web browser¹, Internet Explorer had been on a steady downward trajectory² for nearly two decades. Its share of the browser market fell below the 50% threshold in 2010 and now sits at about 5%, according to browser usage tracker NetMarketShare. Google's  Chrome is the browser leader, commanding a 69% share of the market.

IE浏览器曾经是应用最广泛的网络浏览器，但近二十年来使用量一直不断下降。浏览器使用量追踪机构NetMarketShare 的数据显示，2010年IE在浏览器市场的份额跌破50%大关，如今只剩下5%的份额。谷歌浏览器是浏览器中的领头羊，占据了69%的市场份额。

 

In its death announcement, Microsoft said Internet Explorer is slow, no longer practical for or compatible with many modern web tasks, and is far less secure than modern browsers³.

在这份“死亡声明”中，微软表示，IE浏览器速度太慢，已经不适用也不兼容于许多现代网络任务，也远不如现代浏览器安全。

 

Yet IE has miraculously⁴ managed to stick around for 26 years. Microsoft has continued to ship IE with Windows to ensure that corporate⁵ apps keep functioning properly. Corporations tend to be very slow to adopt new browser versions, particularly if they custom-build applications for them.

然而IE浏览器已经奇迹般地挺过了26年。微软继续在Windows系统中内置IE浏览器，确保企业的软件能够正常运行。企业接受新版浏览器的速度通常都很慢，尤其是那些定制应用和浏览器兼容的企业。

 

Most Windows 10 PC owners probably never noticed that IE is installed on their computers. Edge, Microsoft's modern browser, is based on Google's open source Chrome code, and has gained much more traction⁶ than IE in recent years.

大多数Windows 10个人电脑用户很可能从未注意到自己的电脑安装了IE浏览器。微软基于谷歌Chrome开源代码的现代浏览器Edge近年来的受欢迎程度已经远超IE。

 

It's unclear if Microsoft will stop installing IE on Windows PCs by default once the company discontinues support for IE, although that would be likely. Microsoft's latest version of the Edge browser supports web apps built for IE so customers don't have to keep switching between browsers. So IE has at long last outlived its usefulness.

在微软终止对IE的支持后，尚不清楚微软是否会停止在Windows个人电脑上默认安装IE浏览器，不过可能性比较大。微软最新版本的Edge浏览器支持和IE兼容的网络应用程序，这样用户就不必在不同的浏览器之间切换。所以IE浏览器最终还是失去了用途。

 

Internet Explorer debuted⁷ in 1995 as part of Windows 95 and became an instant hit. It successfully killed off Netscape Navigator, and it achieved a virtual monopoly in the early 2000s. At its 2002 peak, Internet Explorer commanded 95% of the browser market.

IE浏览器于1995年伴随着Windows 95电脑推出，推出后曾轰动一时，成功干掉了网景导航者浏览器，并在21世纪初达到了实质性的垄断地位。在2002年的巅峰期，IE占据了95%的浏览器市场份额。

 

But Microsoft failed to innovate⁸, essentially⁹ leaving Internet Explorer 6 alone to gather dust and cobwebs for five years. That frustrated¹⁰ customers and sent them fleeing for greener pastures. Internet Explorer became synonymous with bugs¹¹, security problems and outdated¹² technology.

但是微软没能革新浏览器，长达五年时间把IE6浏览器晾在一边让其自生自灭。对此感到绝望的用户纷纷改用更好的浏览器。IE成为了缺陷、安全问题和过时技术的同义词。

 

Microsoft finally released IE7 in 2006, but the damage was done. Microsoft paved the way for Firefox and then Chrome to surpass it.

2006年，微软终于推出了IE7浏览器，但是局面已难以挽回。微软亲手为火狐和谷歌浏览器超越自己铺平了道路。

 

The company tried to revitalize IE: With Internet Explorer 9 in 2011, Microsoft finally released a modern browser. Still, to this day IE still doesn't support extensions, isn't available on non-Windows devices and doesn't sync with other devices by default — all mainstays of Chrome and Firefox.

2011年，试图复兴IE的微软终于推出了一款现代浏览器IE9。然而，时至今日IE依然不支持扩展程序，不能在非Windows设备上使用，而且默认不能和其他设备兼容，而这些都是谷歌和火狐浏览器的强项。

 

Microsoft acknowledges that IE isn't ideal for web browsing¹³.

微软承认，IE不是理想的网络浏览器。

 

"Customers have been using IE 11 since 2013 when the online environment was much less sophisticated than the landscape today," the company said last August. "Since then, open web standards and newer browsers — like the new Microsoft Edge — have enabled better, more innovative¹⁴ online experiences."

微软去年八月表示：“自从2013年以来，用户一直在用IE11浏览器，那时候的网络环境远没有现在这么复杂。如今，开放的网络标准和更新的浏览器（比如新的Microsoft Edge浏览器）可以提供更好、更新颖的网络体验。”

 

That's why, for the past five years, Microsoft has been trying — unsuccessfully — to kill Internet Explorer.

这就是为什么过去五年来微软一直在试图让IE浏览器退休，但是没有成功。

 

Microsoft's Internet Explorer engineers acknowledged in 2014 that the company was considering a name change to "separate ourselves from negative perceptions" about the browser.

微软的IE工程师曾在2014年承认，微软正在考虑更改浏览器的名字，以“摆脱人们对IE的负面印象”。

 

Instead, Microsoft developed a whole new browser, releasing Edge in 2015. But Edge didn't actually replace IE. Internet Explorer to this day is pre-installed on Windows PCs alongside Edge.

结果就是，微软研发出了一款全新的浏览器，并于2015年推出了Edge。但是Edge并没有在实际上取代IE。时至今日Windows个人电脑上预装的浏览器除了Edge外，依然还有IE。

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