This is a big week for Microsoft end of support agreements. As of January 12, 2016, older versions of Internet explorer are no longer supported. IE 11 is the only version to receive updates moving forward.
According to Microsoft’s website “Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical supports and security updates. Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.” 
This means that security updates, and vulnerability patches will no longer be released for any older versions of IE7, IE8, IE9 or IE10. Microsoft is pushing hard for users to consolidate onto their latest platforms, at the very least, using IE 11, and at best, moving to Windows 10 with the new Edge browser. While this may be frustrating for some users, particularly corporate desktop users that are running legacy software that may not be compatible with the latest operating system, it certainly helps Microsoft maintain a more manageable landscape of environments when it comes to supporting security updates and minimizing vulnerabilities.
Future vulnerabilities by malware, or other security flaws are a real possibility in unpatched and unsupported software that can lead to exposure of personal data including credit card information, sensitive passwords, and other sensitive data.
Also, as of January 12th, Windows 8.0 users must upgrade to Windows 8.1 in order to continue receiving mainstream support through 2018. While corporate adoption of Windows 8 was relatively low at less than 15%, there are undoubtedly businesses out there that need to perform the upgrade.
While we understand the migration process, we also know that many organizations tend to lag behind the curve when it comes to updating systems, so it is still important to perform website monitoring using a variety of different versions of web browser. If you are concerned about how your websites perform in different browser versions you may want to check out a free trial of our BrowserView monitoring solution which allows you to monitor your web pages in over 40 different browsers including many popular mobile platforms.
