Feedback requested: Dropping Internet Explorer 11 support in TinyMCE 6.0

October 18th, 2021

2 min read

Tinymce is collecting feedback with the intention to drop support for IE11 in the TinyMCE version 6 release. by Clint Patterson

Internet Explorer 11 (or IE11), is a well known web browser – largely due to its age (not to mention the memes). It's the default version of the web-browsing software available on all computers running Windows 8.1 or earlier.

Windows releases are now up to Windows version 11, while IE11 was introduced back in 2013. The web browser is now facing the end of an era, and Microsoft has recently announced that IE11 will be retired, and they’ll exit IE11 from their customer support program on June 15, 2022.

Microsoft has well and truly shifted development energy and customer support to their new browser: Microsoft Edge.

What this means for TinyMCE, is an important announcement – for our upcoming TinyMCE version 6 release, we intend to remove support for IE11. However, support will continue within the TinyMCE 5 series for as long as we support TinyMCE 5.

TinyMCE rich text editor Version 6 intends to drop IE11 support

In summary, the reasons for our intention to remove IE11 support are:

1. With browser software advances, TinyMCE has adapted to those changes, and for many years we have been the one of the few editors that have continued to support older browsers like Internet Explorer. Testing features for IE11 has grown increasingly costly overtime as fewer and fewer build and test services support IE11.

2. With the shift towards a model based editor for TinyMCE, it’s increasingly difficult for us to continue supporting legacy software such as IE11. This is especially true given that our newest, more advanced feature – Real-time Collaboration – needs to be built in a model-based environment with the right APIs, which can not support IE11. As for the market as a whole, all model-based editors are dropping support for the IE11 platform.

3. Security is also an ongoing priority for us. When security issues happen with legacy software like IE11, it’s something that we can’t control, and we want to avoid the potential problems of facing a security feature we cannot fix or address.

Therefore, in light of these key concerns, TinyMCE 6.0 is strongly considering no longer supporting IE11.

Handling the Internet Explorer changes

We intend to remove support for IE11 for the upcoming TinyMCE version 6 release. However, for anyone who still needs to run Internet Explorer, select a version of TinyMCE 5 series with the plugins and features you require, which will retain IE11 support after our removal of service.

With this advance warning and the time now available to you, you can devise and implement a plan to move away from IE11.Microsoft has provided some resources for organisations still using applications that rely on IE11. The following can help you adjust to moving away from IE11: