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Google 'fesses up: Yup, we're KILLING OFF IE9 support for Gmail, Apps

End of the line for 'non-modern' browser

Google has finally revealed its plans for Gmail and Google Apps to stop working with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9.

The internet ads and search giant said it has stopped all testing and engineering work to make Gmail and Apps work with IE9.

Microsoft’s customers will start receiving notifications in the next few weeks that IE9 is an unsupported browser and telling them to upgrade to a “modern” browser.

Google is killing IE9 in line with its policy announced in June 2011 for its apps and services to only work with the current and prior major releases of browsers.

The policy applies to IE, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari.

IE9’s being cut loose because Microsoft released IE11 in October, meaning Google will now only make sure its apps work with IE11 and IE10.

Google is late in announcing the change, as reported by The Reg here.

When IE10 was approaching last year, with the imminent release of Windows 8, Google prepped users a month in advance to say its support for IE8 would end.

Google had refused say what its plans were for IE9 support, telling The Reg days before the release of IE11: “Google does not pre-announce these things, but we inform users of changes in good time”.

There was no word from Google on why it is late announcing the end of IE9 support.

The decision has broad implications for Microsoft users. IE9 is the browser for Windows Vista up to Service Pack 2 and works with Windows 7 on the client.

IE10 does not work with Windows Vista, so holdouts will need to move to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Windows 7 users will need to ensure they have installed the operating system’s latest service pack, SP1.

Windows 7 users do have the further get-out of installing IE11 that shipped with Windows 8.1, but they need Service Pack 1 installed first.

But with the web littered with reports that IE11 is not working properly with Gmail, Windows customers should be concerned. Google has given them one less browser to fall back on, with IE10 now the only alternative to IE11 .®

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