Last month, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela confirmed reports that Windows 10 will be shipping with a new web browser dubbed Project Spartan. This new browser will take the place of Internet Explorer (IE) as the default browser that enables Windows 10 users to connect to the Internet.

Although many believe that once Windows 10 rolls out, IE will be immediately discontinued, this will not likely happen. As my colleague Duncan Riley recently pointed out, the IE brand will probably be around for years to come, especially for people who will not be upgrading to Windows 10 immediately. Plus, the new browser is probably just an improved version of IE; they’re just changing the name to remove the stigma of IE.

While IE will eventually be gone, it may take a couple of years or so for it to totally disappear. But, it will remain in our memories far longer than that. So what will you miss most about IE, if anything at all?

What I’ll miss about IE

It was my first

I still remember asking my older sister how to use the Internet. She pointed to the “e” logo on the desktop computer and told me to double click on it to launch Internet Explorer. She taught me where to type the address of the site I wanted to go to, setup my email account and generally how to explore the World Wide Web. The feeling of exploration is something I’ll never forget. I had no idea what a “fast browser” was, and I was just happy to discover the Internet and what it had to offer.

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It helped me find new things

Windows users only have IE as a default browser. This means that when you first installed Windows, you needed to use it, even it was just to download a different browser. Even though IE sometimes took ages to load pages, I will remember it fondly as a tool that allowed me to explore new worlds and find relatively quick answers.

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It’s a brave little fellow

Even after I downloaded a new browser that I preferred over IE, I will admit that there were times when I would go back to using IE for some reason, such as when another browser would crash. And whenever I would open IE and see that dialog box asking if I wanted to make IT my default browser, I couldn’t help but smile and think how brave it was to ask that question even when it knew it would be declined.

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Who needs incognito when you’ve got IE?

Some people use incognito or invisible mode if they don’t want their browsing activity to be visible to others. Others religiously delete their browsing history after each use so as not to leave any digital paper trails. But why go through all that trouble when you can use an unsuspecting browser? When you have two or three other browsers installed, no one suspects that you would use IE for your secret web-browsing activities because IE’s relevancy ended long ago. This meant no more incognito mode or deleting your browsing history. Just browse to your heart’s content on IE!

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The memes and the jokes

Internet Explorer is quite popular on the Internet because it is the butt of many jokes, and many a memes have been made about it. If IE eventually goes away, I’d surely miss reading the jokes and browsing the numerous memes about it.

photo credit: anything but IE via photopin (license)