Upgrade to IE 11 or Windows 10 with Edge
These are the droids you’re looking for
Has your organisation upgraded to Internet Explorer 11? Are there folks in the organisation who have are still particularly attached to older browser versions (or maybe just haven’t made upgrading a priority)? While there are a number of compelling business reasons to upgrade, I want to add another slightly less well known reason: BB-8.
There’s a particularly electrifying moment from Star Wars Celebration last April, an event for fans of the Star Wars universe, when BB-8, a droid from the new movie Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, rolls onstage. What was remarkable was the instant and overwhelmingly positive response that fans have had to BB-8, especially given the love fans have for his predecessor, R2-D2: the most loved movie robot in history. There’s a clearly audible gasp from the crowd. Grown men stare gape-mouthed in child-like wonder.
So why have fans become so enamoured of BB-8 so quickly? There are a few reasons. First, designers have taken the best of what we love about R2-D2 and incorporated it into BB-8. He looks and sounds familiar, and seems to have the same dependable, inquisitive nature and plucky can-do attitude as R2-D2. Second, he’s clearly a generation evolved: while his head remains level, his football-shaped body is able to roll in all directions. He seems nimbler and more agile, and may just have a few more gadgets up his sleeves than R2.
The same thing can be said for Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge. While they look and feel like their predecessors in the IE family, they also operate faster, provide more fluid navigation and can adapt better to their surroundings (whether a desktop or mobile environment). So while older versions of Internet Explorer have become as familiar to users as R2-D2, we realise that there are times to make room for the next generation.
So starting on 12 January, only the current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates. If you want your browsing experience to continue to have state of the art security, performance, backward compatibility and more it’s time to consider moving to IE11. Of course, if you own one of the 110M+ devices that is running Windows 10, you’re already experiencing the more personal and productive web through Microsoft Edge.
Five more reasons to upgrade to IE11:
- Internet Explorer 11 has the best backward compatibility of any Microsoft web browser. With nine document modes, Internet Explorer 11 is the only browser with high-fidelity emulation for older versions of Internet Explorer. Upgrading apps to modern standards is still the best long-term strategy, but you can use backward compatibility to upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 more quickly and easily. It also makes web browsing across all your Windows 10 devices safer.
- Modern web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and WebGL ensure that Internet Explorer 11 works with today’s websites. As your business moves to more cloud-based apps and services, you need an enterprise-class browser to help ensure business continuity. Internet Explorer 11 provides consistency and reliability across your Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 desktops.
- Internet Explorer 11 is more secure than older versions. For example, independent security firm NSS Labs found in 2010 that Internet Explorer 8 blocked about 85% of socially-engineered malware, but more recently reported a 99% block rate for Internet Explorer 11. With security features like SmartScreen and Enhanced Protected Mode, Internet Explorer 11 significantly reduces risk.
- Internet Explorer 11 is fast, with improvements in JavaScript performance, network optimization, and fully hardware-accelerated text and JPEG rendering. Think your web apps on Internet Explorer 8 are slow? Breathe new life into them by upgrading to Internet Explorer 11, which will put your hardware investment to better use. Some organizations have justified their Internet Explorer 11 upgrade based on performance benefits alone!
- Internet Explorer 11 can ease your next Windows migration, as Internet Explorer 11 is the only Internet Explorer version that runs on Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. Upgrading to Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 now can help unlock the next generation of software, services, and devices
Next Steps:
Ready to upgrade now? We’re here to help. Our TechNet group has pulled together a number of resources to help end users and administrators make their upgrade to IE 11 as smooth and painless as possible.
Want to learn more about how Internet Explorer 11 helps you stay up to speed? Take a look at our latest IE infographic here:
