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A comment on Retiring Internet Explorer. Parent comment

Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by wvenable on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @06:07PM (#22123054)
> If Microsoft really believes no-one needs IE, why is it still shipping it as part of Windows 10?

We have multi-million dollar software that relies on IE to run -- that's why. What good is an OS that can't run our software?

Since Windows 10 we've setup an icon to just launch this application in IE and set the default browser for end-users to Chrome.

Eventually that software will be replaced and we can end our use of IE but today is not that day.

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by criddell on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @06:59PM (#22123407)
IE doesn't have to ship with Windows 10, does it? Is there any reason it couldn't be a separate install?

I don't use it so I'd rather not have it on my machine.

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by cesarb on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @07:39PM (#22123670)
From what I recall, iexplore.exe is actually only a small wrapper around mshtml.dll. A lot of software depend on mshtml.dll and related DLLs. So you might think you're not using IE, but other non-browser software you use might be using IE under the covers. If Microsoft doesn't install IE by default, these programs would not work correctly (which is why Wine also implements these DLLs).
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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by sjwright on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @07:43PM (#22123701)
Correct, iexplore.exe is itself a small wrapper. But that doesn't stop Microsoft from not shipping that small wrapper. Software that embeds mshtml.dll does not require the existence of the exe file.

(Or alternatively, Microsoft could put some hack into Windows so that attempts to run iexplore.exe are passed to Edge unless the administrator has twiddled with some arbitrary registry key or group policy.)

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by wvenable on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @07:59PM (#22123809)
> But that doesn't stop Microsoft from not shipping that small wrapper.

They could but that goes back to reply about it existing software still requiring IE.

IE will be around for as long as very critical apps still require it. In some form, it might be around forever.

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by Polylactic_acid on Thursday January 23, 2020 @12:47AM (#22125154)
IE should just be a compatibility mode in edge so you only have one program and a button to say "this page is broken, load in legacy mode". That way everyone else in the world can stop being forced to support IE users.
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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by AstralStorm on Thursday January 23, 2020 @06:56AM (#22126812)
This won't work where ActiveX is required. They would have to write a plug-in wrapper...
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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by sjwright on Sunday January 26, 2020 @09:50AM (#22152308)
The legacy mode would surely run MSHTML.dll for the entire page.
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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by paulddraper on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @11:15PM (#22124814)
> But that doesn't stop Microsoft from not shipping that small wrapper.

But what's the benefit of complicating the install?

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by criddell on Thursday January 23, 2020 @11:43AM (#22129002)
1. Most people will never install it.

2. A smaller OS.

3. A more secure OS (the wrapper probably isn't bug free).

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by paulddraper on Thursday January 23, 2020 @11:45AM (#22129031)
> the wrapper probably isn't bug free

This probably only matters if it's attempted to be used.

I will concede that you will save a few MB on your multi-GB Windows install.

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by cr0sh on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @06:51PM (#22123334)
It's basically the same way with VB6 apps - so many of them out there, and MS can't get rid of the runtime DLL...
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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by wvenable on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @08:09PM (#22123876)
The desktop component of this very same application requires the VB6 runtime. And the server side requires Korn shell (for Windows)!
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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by felipelemos on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @07:44PM (#22123707)
You have to install Chrome anyway, why not also install IE?

I'm sure this would not be a big deal for a multi-million dollar company.

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Re:Retiring Internet Explorer by wvenable on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @08:02PM (#22123835)
IE is an OS component; it's not merely a browser.
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