Microsoft retiring Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is set to be rebranded later this year.

Microsoft is killing off Internet Explorer and will rebrand its internet browsing software under what is currently code-named Project Spartan, later this year.

Speaking at a Microsoft conference earlier this week, the company's marketing chief Chris Capossela said Microsoft was working on a new name and brand, tech website The Verge reported.

"We're now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," Capossela said.

"We'll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we'll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing."

Internet Explorer will still exist in some versions of Windows 10, but its replacement Project Spartan will be named separately and will be the primary way Windows 10 users browse the web.

Internet Explorer was designed to counter browser pioneer Netscape at the dawn of the internet and accounted for an estimated 95 per cent of browser usage after the turn of the millennium, at one stage being used by almost 1 billion people, the Financial Times reported.

However, a combination of complacency and the failure to anticipate the shift to mobile sealed the browser's fate and its usage has now dropped to around 20 per cent, the same as open-source competitor Firefox.

Google's Chrome browser has taken over its market and is now used by nearly 50 per cent of web users, The Financial Times reported.