Some of the most iconic Windows apps like Internet Explorer and MSN have been retired a while ago. History explains why they are no longer available.
Windows has become the most-used desktop and laptop operating system since its first release in 1985. Its user-friendly interface had intuitively designed windows, icons, and menus that played a significant role in ushering in the era of personal computing.
But what has made Windows so popular isn’t just the operating system itself. The software that accompanies the OS is where users really get to interact with their PC or laptop, with apps for communication, creativity, entertainment, and productivity available right out of the box. Of course, technology moves quickly, and with every software update, with every major Windows release, the apps users have come to love are at risk of being replaced. Over the years, several apps have been discontinued despite their popularity, and many have simply been updated or rebranded without much notice. Here are four such iconic Windows apps that you can now only find in the history books.MSN Messenger
Before texting and social media dominated our communication methods, MSN Messenger established itself as the digital hangout for millions of users. It was launched in 1999, and over the next few years, it amassed a total user base of 330 million people. MSN Messenger allowed people to chat in real time, send files back and forth, make voice and video calls, and even see when their friends came online. It was particularly popular among young people, as users could create personalized profiles with custom display names and status messages. A library of emoticons was also available for users to digitally express themselves. Such features are commonplace in contemporary messaging software, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, but in the early 2000s, they were groundbreaking.
However, the 2000s also saw the rise of social media, with MySpace and eventually Facebook offering other features and connectivity to rival MSN Messenger. Smartphones were also gaining traction as everyday devices, and after the first iPhone was launched in 2007, users had a wide variety of affordable and free options for staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. Microsoft attempted to modernize the platform by rebranding MSN Messenger as Windows Live Messenger, but millions of users had already moved on, and the changes failed to attract a new audience. Microsoft officially started phasing out the software in 2013 by integrating it into Skype, and Skype itself was then discontinued in 2025.Windows Movie Maker
Nowadays, you can edit videos on your iPhone or Android device, but in the early 2000s, it required a desktop or laptop computer. In September 2000, Microsoft brought video editing capabilities to the masses with Windows Movie Maker, a piece of software that came bundled with Windows Millennium (Windows Me). The software allowed users to import video clips using digital cameras that are old by today’s standards and provided a wide range of editing features without the need for expensive, professional video editing equipment. Similar to the concept of Apple iMovie, which was released around the same time, Windows Movie Maker aimed to put storytelling with a camera into the hands of everyday people.
With the rise of high-speed internet connections and platforms like YouTube gaining popularity on the internet, Windows Movie Maker users had plenty of ways to distribute their video creations. Because it was easy to use and free as part of the Windows operating system, Movie Maker was accessible to millions, and likely an important cog in the workflow for countless cat videos, home videos, and early internet viral clips. Microsoft changed Movie Maker’s name to Windows Live Movie Maker in 2009, and with new video format standards and plenty of free video editing options on the market, Microsoft officially ended support for the software in 2017.Microsoft Encarta
While today there is a near-endless amount of information accessible to anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection, there was a time when all of that information was only available offline. You could, of course, go to a library to track things down, but you could also turn to Microsoft Encarta. Initially distributed as a CD-ROM application, Encarta was a multimedia encyclopedia produced by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Having sold more than 350,000 copies by the end of 1993, it quickly became a Windows PC necessity and the go-to source for high school student bibliographies. To further increase its popularity, Microsoft began bundling Encarta for free with the purchase of certain PCs.
But the internet wasn’t far behind Microsoft Encarta. Online access was changing the way people obtained information, and the launch of Wikipedia in 2001 established an entirely free source of consolidated, user-edited information. At the time of its release, Encarta cost $395. But even with a price drop to $99, the bundling with PC purchases, and an eventual subscription-based website, Encarta could not compete with the free and instantly-accessible Wikipedia. Microsoft officially shut down the Encarta website in 2009 and stopped selling Encarta products shortly after.Internet Explorer
With the shocking results of AI-powered browsers and with our ability to access the internet from our phones, it may be difficult to remember the simpler times of internet exploration. But that’s precisely the era Microsoft Internet Explorer helped create.It launched in 1995 to a marketplace largely dominated by Netscape Navigator, but because it was bundled for free with the Windows operating system, Internet Explorer quickly caught on with PC users. For many who grew up in the 1990s, Internet Explorer was part of their childhood. At its peak in 2003, the browser had a 95% market share, with millions of people using it as their primary way to access the internet.
Several competitors were on their way, though, as Firefox launched in 2004 and Google Chrome in 2008. Microsoft was unable to keep up with changing web standards, and security was becoming more and more important for those accessing the internet. Mishandled renderings of web pages, slow performance, and poor security were common complaints among users. Microsoft tried leaning into the browser’s worsening image, launching a campaign in 2012 called “the browser you loved to hate”, but it did little to revive Internet Explorer’s reputation. Microsoft launched Edge as its default Windows and cross-device browser in 2015 and officially retired Internet Explorer in 2022.

The spider-like formation could be evidence of epic eruptions of water that blast through Europa’ surface.
Spiders from Mars? Try Europa.
A team of planetary scientists from Ireland have examined and named an intriguing feature on the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon that resembles the shape of an arachnid — or perhaps an exploded asterisk.
They’re calling it “Damhán Alla,” which is Gaelic for “spider,” or in a particularly evocative phrasing, “wall demon.”
The team’s analysis, published as a study in The Planetary Science Journal, suggest that Damhán Alla, and other features like it, may be the festering wounds formed by torrents of water erupting through Europa’s icy shell.
“The significance of our research is really exciting,” lead author Lauren Mc Keown, a physicist at the University of Central Florida, said in a statement. “Surface features like these can tell us a lot about what’s happening beneath the ice. If we see more of them with Europa Clipper” — NASA’s new space probe currently en route to Jupiter — they could point to local brine pools below the surface.”
Europa is the smallest of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, and is of interest to astronomers because it’s suspected to harbor a saltwater ocean underneath its icy surface, making it one of the most promising candidates for off-world life in the solar system. Its spider-like feature was first observed by NASA’s Galileo mission, which lasted between 1989 and 2003, during which the spacecraft performed 11 flybys of Europa.
For the study, Mc Keown’s team compared Damhán Alla, which is roughly a kilometer across, with similar formations on Earth called lake stars, sometimes called ice stars. Typically a few feet in size, lake stars form when snow falls on the surface of a frozen lake and holes form in the ice, letting water melt away some of the snow in radial, branching patterns. Scientists call these patterns dendritic, and that they’re seeing such patterns on Europa’s surface suggest another sign of water breaking through its surface.
The hypothesized scenario, in this case, is that some sort of impact to the moon’s icy shell allowed briny water to seep through the shattered ice. This would also point to the existence of a vast subsurface ocean, or at least small pools of water right beneath the surface.
“Lake stars are really beautiful, and they are pretty common on snow or slush-covered frozen lakes and ponds,” Mc Keown said. “It is wonderful to think that they may give us a glimpse into processes occurring on Europa and maybe even other icy ocean worlds in our solar system.”

Waymo’s self-driving cars have recorded an alarming number of school bus safety violations in recent months.
Despite holding a track record as some of the safest self-driving cars on American roads, Waymo’s robotaxis seem to be veering off course lately.
Earlier this week, Waymo filed a software recall for 3,067 of its 5th-generation vehicles, after the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into the vehicles’ behavior around school busses. In its summary of the recall, the NHTSA said that the “software may cause the vehicle to pass a stopped school bus even when the red lights are flashing and/or stop arm is extended.”
The recall comes after 20 incidents with school buses were recorded in Austin, as well as at least six in Atlanta throughout 2025. While no one has been hurt yet, NHTSA records note at least one case where a Waymo zoomed past “disembarking students.” That’s an immensely serious threat to safety: driving past a school bus with active warning lights and stop arms extended is a major traffic violation in all 50 states, carrying steep penalties for human drivers.
Though Waymo claims it had patched all affected vehicles by November 17, CBS reports that the Austin Independent School District (AISD) logged at least one violation after that date.
In response to the early December violation, AISD officials reached out to Waymo, asking it to limit operations around school drop-off and pick-up times.
But Waymo told the school district it’s going to keep on trucking.
“They did not agree with our risk assessment and respectfully declined to stop operating,” Austin ISD Police Chief Wayne Sneed told CNN.
“It’s problematic when the company’s not listening because their product could really hurt people, especially school children and families,” said Jason Coomer, an attorney consulted by CNN.
Waymo didn’t respond to the network’s request for comment.
The dispute comes as Waymo has begun reprogramming its vehicles to drive more aggressively. Those updates are intended to avoid passive or defensive driving. Though the company has yet to cause the death of a human, it’s already run over numerous beloved pets, and has become involved in a growing number of bizarre incidents, like when a Waymo drove its passengers through an armed police standoff.
The contention with AISD does set up an intriguing test: given that Waymo has declared the school bus issue resolved, any additional violations will be a telling indication of the company’s ability to control its vehicles in response to controversy.

Depending on your device, TikTok Lite may offer a better user experience than the standard TikTop app. But safety concerns of the Lite version have been raised.
TikTok, recently on the brink of a US ban, is a service that needs no introduction; it has become one of the most ubiquitous social media platforms and video viewing apps in the world, with the Android version having exceeded a billion downloads on the Google Play Store alone. But not everyone has the latest smartphone able to stream endless hours of TikTok content, which is why the brand also offers TikTok Lite. TikTok Lite is meant to be a more compact version of the app for lower-end phones, though this comes at the cost of some vital safety features like labeling dangerous activities or identifying AI content.
The only intended tangible difference between the regular TikTok and TikTok Lite apps is that the Lite version is supposed to have a smaller footprint on your phone, making it an attractive alternative for those with less storage or who have not invested in a wireless unlimited data plan. However, that smaller footprint doesn’t emerge from the ether. TikTok Lite is smaller in size, but only because it’s missing important content labeling and browsing features that some users may not feel comfortable using the platform without.TikTok Lite has a smaller footprint
TikTok Lite is intended primarily for those with devices or data plans that may prevent them from using the regular TikTok app to its fullest. For example, if you’ve got a lower-end or older smartphone, are on a data plan with strict data usage limitations, have a generally unstable or unreliable internet connection, or are in need of more Android phone storage, the main app may not perform as well for you.
On its Google Play Store page, TikTok Lite bills itself as “the compact, faster version of TikTok.” This is true; compared to the regular TikTok app’s download size of 182 MB, TikTok Lite only requires 30 MB to download to your phone. The app’s UI has a more streamlined design that takes up less of your device’s RAM, so it can load content faster and with less processing strain. It also has a built-in data saver mode, helping to lower data usage by around 20% while streaming videos.
Despite its smaller profile, TikTok Lite still offers the majority of the regular app’s functions and services, including your regular video feed, downloading videos for offline viewing, and a suite of video creation and editing tools. It also offers TikTok’s direct messaging chat feature.TikTok Lite is missing some safety features
With its leaner performance, TikTok Lite sounds like a perfect solution for those without beefy smartphones, or even those who have higher-end devices and just want it to take up less space. However, be aware that TikTok Lite achieves its slim profile in part by cutting out several potentially vital safety features you would normally find in the main app. According to a study conducted by the Mozilla Foundation, TikTok Lite is missing browsing-centric safety features, particularly those related to labeling dangerous or misleading content.
For example, on the main app, if a video depicts someone engaged in dangerous behavior or circulating obvious misinformation, or if the video contains AI-generated content, the video will contain a clear tag informing the user as such. TikTok Lite does not have these warning labels present when viewing or scrolling through videos. In fact, compared to the main app, TikTok Lite generally limits a user’s ability to curate content and interactions.
You can’t block particular types of videos or filter out malicious user comments, and perhaps most glaringly, there is no opt-in option for automatically filtering out graphic, violent content. TikTok Lite is decent for quick browsing on a metered connection, but if you’re concerned about being exposed to certain types of content or user interactions, it may be best to stick with the main app.