June 16 2022: Internet Explorer  is now history. Yesterday Microsoft suspended all support for the browser that dominated the web  from introduction in 1995 to  its heyday around 2003,  with a 95% share.
Internet Explorer was included in the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year. Later versions were available as free downloads, or in-service packs, and included in the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) service releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows.
On March 17, 2015, Microsoft announced that Microsoft Edge would replace Internet Explorer as the default browser "for certain versions of Windows 10". This made Internet Explorer 11 the final release. New feature development for the browser was discontinued in 2016 in favor of new browser Microsoft Edge. Microsoft 365 ended support for Internet Explorer on August 17, 2021, and Microsoft Teams ended support for IE on November 30, 2020.
Internet Explorer was once the most widely used web browser, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share by 2003. This came after Microsoft used bundling to win the first browser war against Netscape, which was the dominant browser in the 1990s. Its usage share has since declined with the launch of Firefox (2004) and Google Chrome (2008), and with the growing popularity of mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS that do not support Internet Explorer.