This is interesting...

Drew1903 · ‎Apr 14 2019

This is especially interesting as it's on the heels of a conversation I had earlier today w/ a colleague about some of his clients and weaning them off of IE. Geesh.

Current Edge: Settings > More tools > Open w/ IE and any site opened in Edge will now, also, open itself in IE.

Edge Insider: Both Dev & Canary, More Tools exists, but, Open w/ IE is not there (anymore).

This fits w/ my telling him to stop thinking about IE w/ his customers; treat it as dead & gone.

(It has only lingered about for a while, after Edge was released, because of a few Enterprise environments w/ old legacy software.)

It probably should not seem surprising if the option wasn't or isn't offered, anymore.

Cheers,
Drew

tomscharbach · ‎Apr 14 2019

@Drew1903 If I'm not mistaken, Microsoft is now describing IE as a "component of the Windows operating system" rather than describing it as a browser, and I've read articles (true or not, I don't know, but coming from reputable media) that it won't be long before the browser interface of IE disappears from sight, although underlying components (e.g. runtime DLLs) will remain components of the operating system.

Early on, so few websites were writing for EdgeHTML that there were compatibility issues. MS used to advise that "if it don't work right in Edge, open it in IE". I haven't heard that one in a while, though, and moving over to Blink will obviously eliminate compatibility problems. So maybe MS has come to the point where nobody will have a need to "open it in IE" any more and has dropped the option. If so, that is interesting, indeed.

As an aside, I routinely turn off IE in Windows 10, and, despite the warning that MS issues when you do that, I've never had any problems at all as a result. But I use reasonably vanilla software, and I'm probably not running anything that requires IE components like runtime DLLs. As far as I am concerned, turning off IE just eliminates a security risk.

Drew1903 · ‎Apr 14 2019

Exactly, Tom. 7 is going to be history, soon and IE is definitly being put out to pasture or wherever dinosaurs go to die. And there is no need for it, now, already, anyway. And, yes, that WAS the reason for "Open w/ IE" and yes, NOW, site compatability, really, isn't an issue. One is very hard pressed to find a problematic site, anymore. And it is ok because IE is no great loss LOL.

I mentioned in another note, although, for consumers, the "If it's not ok in Edge" explains the "Open w/ IE' the biggest IE is, still, lingering around at all was to indulge some Enterprise customers who had some old legacy softward that allegedly had to have IE to run. We come a long way from those days a long 3 years ago ;) They don't need it for that anymore much either. Most everything, by now, has caught up to Edge & Win 10. W/ 10 & Edge to compatability list is, actually, huge & grows. There was a real effort w/ 10 (Edge being part of 10) that people would not see the lack of compatabilty issues for niether hardware or software that had existed pre-Windows 10.

Cheers,
Drew