Internet Explorer 6 Dies Today: IE6 Ends With Windows XP

If there was a day to be joyful for the end of software builds, today is that day. Both Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 have officially been dumped by Microsoft. What's this mean for you, the user of these relatively ancient pieces of hacker-friendly Microsoft-abandoned code?

For Internet Explorer 6, it means you're amongst a very, very small cross-section of users. All the way back in January of 2012 it was suggested that just 1% of users still browsed the web with Internet Explorer 6. Today we're going to go ahead and estimate that number is a fraction of what existed a few months over a year ago.

It was also back in January of 2012 that Microsoft mace clear that they'd be destroying the software the best way they knew how: by abandoning it. This means that software updates will cease entirely and Microsoft will no longer provide tech support to any user.

UPDATE: Even back to August of 2009, it would appear, Microsoft was first warning the public that they'd be supporting Internet Explorer 6 until 2014. Thanks for the tip, JGouf!

Unlike what we've seen with Custom Support for Windows XP, it would appear that Internet Explorer 6 has been utterly, utterly abandoned, with no such support system in place, for any user. Even the most cold, unforgiving businesses – those that make their employees continue using Windows XP – will have to bow down to the future.

Time to upgrade your 13-year-old browser. If you don't, the viruses that will be laid upon your life will be nothing if not completely deserved.