It's the end of an era. While Microsoft had already revealed it was working on a lightweight browser for Windows 10 codenamed 'Project Spartan', and dropped hints it would be an Internet Explorer replacement, a company executive has now confirmed that these two are indeed separate products, and the much maligned Internet Explorer is on the way out.
Speaking at Microsoft's Convergence conference in Atlanta on Monday, reports The Verge, Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela said that the company is currently working on a new name and brand. Internet Explorer will still be kept around "in some versions" of Windows 10 for compatibility reasons, but the new browser – whatever it ends up being called – will take its place as the primary way for users to access the web from a fresh Windows 10 install.
Although it's yet to settle on a name it'll probably have the Microsoft brand attached to it, as in-house research shows the appeal "is incredibly high".
The Internet Explorer brand gained a poor reputation in the early and mid-2000s both for security and for standards compliance. Despite Microsoft's best marketing efforts, and actually delivering a fast and capable browser with the latest versions of Windows, it hasn't been able to shake off the stigma.
Project Spartan will bring a streamlined interface as well as a few different features, including Cortana support, a Reading List that can save articles for offline reading and sync between your phones and PCs, and the ability to annotate and clip pieces of webpages for easy sharing.