Spartan Down: Microsoft’s Pulling the Plug on Classic Edge on March 9th
We knew it was coming, Microsoft told us it was happening, and now the deadline is nearly upon us; Microsoft is getting ready to end support for legacy Edge. On March 9th, the legacy version of Edge will no longer receive security updates which means you need to stop using it immediately.
If the name Spartan doesn’t sound familiar, this was the codename of the new browser and its legacy can be traced back to at least 2014. At that time, I wrote that Microsoft was making big changes for IE12 which I eventually learned was codenamed Spartan.
But the browser never stood a chance, despite Microsoft’s best effort to re-invent itself with its Trident engine, Edge failed. Microsoft made the significant decision several years ago to move from what we know as legacy Edge to the current Edge and the company has not looked back since making the move from Trident to Chromium.
Announced this month, Microsoft is signing the warrant on the end of life for legacy Edge and will remove the application with an update coming to Windows10. Microsoft states:
“To replace this out of support application, we are announcing that the new Microsoft Edge will be available as part of an upcoming Windows 10 cumulative monthly security update. When you apply this update to your devices, the new Microsoft Edge will be installed and the out of support Microsoft Edge Legacy will be removed.”
While I can’t imagine that too many companies built websites specifically for legacy Edge, if you do have users still running this browser, you will need to transition them to the ‘new’ Edge immediately. You can, of course, block this update on Windows 10, but using a browser that is no longer being supported is opening up your organization to unnecessary risk.
When legacy Edge is removed, this will mark the end of the era for the browser but Internet Explorer will still live on as there are intranets and other legacy apps that need this browser to function. That being said, if you find yourself still using Internet Explorer, you should strongly considering finding paths to migrate away from that solution.