(In China, IE6 usage was still at 34% at the time.) In 2011 it launched an IE 6 countdown page to observe usage drop to below 1% worldwide.

IE7 succeeded IE6 in 2006, but so many companies continued using it that in 2009 Microsoft created a 'Friends don't let friends use IE6' campaign due to critical flaws affecting only IE6. But it spent many years before that imploring businesses to ditch IE6 because of its outdated security design.

The company retired IE6 in 2014, 14 years after that browser shipped with Windows XP, with a final patch for IE6 in January 2016. That's because Microsoft is well aware of how long it can take to wean users off a major version of a browser. SEE: The 10 best Windows laptops: Top notebooks, 2-in-1s, and ultraportables In 2019, before it declared the end date for IE, Microsoft execs declared IE 11 a 'compatibility solution' that should not be used as the default browser.

Microsoft has tried to prepare customers for this event for years. But privacy is another matter for the online ad giant. Most people use Google Chrome as their default browser.

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