"For supported operating systems, Internet Explorer 11 will continue receiving security updates and technical support for the lifecycle of the Windows version on which it is installed."
and sadly IE11 came bundled with even Windows Server 2022, so if you're creating a website for users who spend all their time administrating Windows servers, you still have to support IE11...
Microsoft Edge was not included with Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry (although it was later made available for it), and that operating system is still within "extended support" until July 2023.
You're right, though, that basically anyone on any supported Windows operating system has an option available to them which probably takes less effort than that required for someone to add and maintain IE11 support to their website.
Do people browse generally available websites from cash registers? I'd assume they only browse internal portals.
Yes those still exist. Yes they are needed. Yes I have to support them.
Pity me.
That's mostly just used for specialized websites/webapps I think (often internal)? You can still launch IE for that, and use Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser for regular browsing. It's not substantially different from using Electron for desktop apps when you think about it.
Many years ago I worked for a company that used an internal ActiveX-based application (which worked fairly well for us) and this is pretty much what everyone was doing.
The biggest hurdle is probably corporate policies and such that prevent installing any alternative to IE yourself and IT dept. doesn't want to provide you with one either, but at this point I think that's just $BigCorp's problem and I don't care any more. For the record: I take web compat fairly serious and made things compatible with IE11 up to last year, but there's a limit.
The process to replace that feature is not done. So here I am.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/edge-ie-mode
We've tested this at my company that hasn't finished getting rid of java applets and it is taking place of IE until we're done with migrating away from them.
a) All ActiveX extensions are dead. This is problematic if the reason why IE is still being used is because it required an ActiveX content to work (so you couldn't just flip the switch to IE11 compat mode in Edge, you need to rewrite it since three years ago)
b) if you're developing a public-facing website, you can stop worrying IE11, but if you're developing enterprise software you're still in hell for around seven years (give or take if Microsoft offers an ESU à la Windows 7).
I was watching a doctor yesterday use a patient admin portal in IE.