***This page was written by Salesforce, editing by the Graduate School, and is posted here for reference***

What is changing?
This June the Graduate Admissions Application will no longer support IE7 and IE8 browsers. Microsoft originally announced they would end support for IE7 and IE8 on or before January 2015. However, Microsoft subsequently amended its policy, which can be found here.

Why are we ending support for IE7 and IE8?
As we evaluate which browsers to support, we consider which ones will give our users the best experience and enable us to focus on areas that will add the most value for customers. There are three key reasons that drove this decision:

  • IE7 and IE8 are less secure. Trust and security are incredibly important to us at Salesforce. There have been multiple security vulnerabilities discovered in these older browsers over the years, so we are upholding our commitment to trust by ending support for these less secure browsers.
  • IE7 and IE8 are not HTML5 compatible. IE7 was first released in 2006, and IE8 was released in 2009. These browsers do not support the rich internet apps our customers have come to expect, including HTML5, which is the new industry standard and the technology we are investing in moving forward. HTML5 supports mobile devices; doesn’t rely on plug-ins; and provides a faster customer experience.
  • Our customers are moving to newer browsers. Less than 5% of our customers are using IE7, and less than 16% are using IE8. Our customers are trending towards newer browsers, and we want to develop features that best serve our customer community.

What does this mean to me?
If you continue to use IE7 and IE8 browsers after 2015, some new and/or existing features and functionality may no longer work in IE7 and IE8 browsers. Bugs or performance issues that appear only when using IE7 and IE8 will not be investigated or fixed by Salesforce after this release.

What will happen if I take no action?
While users may still be able to access the service from IE7 and IE8, new and/or existing features and functionality may no longer work in these browsers. In addition, bugs or performance issues that appear only when using IE7 and IE8 will not be investigated or fixed by Salesforce after this release.