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The real reason for Windows 11 is that they could finally drop the Internet Explorer 11 GUI.

by m_st 5y ago

cududa 5y ago
The what?
zamadatix 5y ago
Since Windows 10 RTM they have, in subsequent releases, removed (not just deprecated): - Hardware support, such as AGP or older CPUs including some Atoms - Feature support such as Briefcases, SMB1, HomeGroup, PNRP, Windows To Go - Applications shipped with the OS such as Games Explorer, Outlook Express, and other apps like Reader they even introduced with 10 and later discontinued completely. But more importantly than all the above - they already did exactly this with the legacy Edge to Chromium based Edge conversion in 10. Very similarly the backend webview stuff based on Edge is still there but the legacy browser UI is inaccessible. The article is probably spot on if there is a technical reason to blame instead of pure marketing. Things deprecrate and get removed completely without needing to rename the OS these days, things also get added, but not on the scale the hardware requirements change the security baseline imposes. It's easy to explain to a few folks with Atoms from the mid to late 2000s that the next Windows 10 update won't work but the number of users impacted by the hardware requirements for 11 is many orders of magnitude greater on top of being harder to explain. Calling it a new OS completely is the only feasible way to crack that transition explanation.
Someone1234 5y ago
Windows 11 allows you to install IE11, just have to add it as an Apps & Feature -> Optional Feature. Plus the Win32 WebBrowser control and similar still heavily rely on IE11's engine for the foreseeable future.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  These instructions are accurate for 10 but on 11 it'd just be under "Apps" not "Apps and Features" anymore and the only option available in Optional Features now is "Internet Explorer Mode" which is a view mode in Edge and does not bring back iexplore.exe. Microsoft.com seems to agree with the empirical result above: "Internet Explorer is disabled. Microsoft Edge is the recommended replacement and includes IE Mode which may be useful in certain scenarios." https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifica... The backend for app compatibility isn't going anywhere though just the browser frontend.
mixmastamyk 5y ago
macOs went to 11.
- kcartlidge 5y ago
  Mac OS (speaking as a two-decade Mac user) still needs a third party tool just to expand or snap windows properly. And its accessibility options are poor.

The real reason for Windows 11 is that they could finally drop the Internet Explorer 11 GUI.

by m_st 5y ago

The real reason for Windows 11 is that they could finally drop the Internet Explorer 11 GUI.

cududa 5y ago

The what?

zamadatix 5y ago

Since Windows 10 RTM they have, in subsequent releases, removed (not just deprecated): - Hardware support, such as AGP or older CPUs including some Atoms - Feature support such as Briefcases, SMB1, HomeGroup, PNRP, Windows To Go - Applications shipped with the OS such as Games Explorer, Outlook Express, and other apps like Reader they even introduced with 10 and later discontinued completely. But more importantly than all the above - they already did exactly this with the legacy Edge to Chromium based Edge conversion in 10. Very similarly the backend webview stuff based on Edge is still there but the legacy browser UI is inaccessible. The article is probably spot on if there is a technical reason to blame instead of pure marketing. Things deprecrate and get removed completely without needing to rename the OS these days, things also get added, but not on the scale the hardware requirements change the security baseline imposes. It's easy to explain to a few folks with Atoms from the mid to late 2000s that the next Windows 10 update won't work but the number of users impacted by the hardware requirements for 11 is many orders of magnitude greater on top of being harder to explain. Calling it a new OS completely is the only feasible way to crack that transition explanation.

Someone1234 5y ago

Windows 11 allows you to install IE11, just have to add it as an Apps & Feature -> Optional Feature. Plus the Win32 WebBrowser control and similar still heavily rely on IE11's engine for the foreseeable future.

zamadatix 5y ago
These instructions are accurate for 10 but on 11 it'd just be under "Apps" not "Apps and Features" anymore and the only option available in Optional Features now is "Internet Explorer Mode" which is a view mode in Edge and does not bring back iexplore.exe. Microsoft.com seems to agree with the empirical result above: "Internet Explorer is disabled. Microsoft Edge is the recommended replacement and includes IE Mode which may be useful in certain scenarios." https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifica... The backend for app compatibility isn't going anywhere though just the browser frontend.

mixmastamyk 5y ago

macOs went to 11.

kcartlidge 5y ago
Mac OS (speaking as a two-decade Mac user) still needs a third party tool just to expand or snap windows properly. And its accessibility options are poor.