Bill Gates has poked fun at COVID-19 conspiracy theorists with a tongue-in-cheek quip that the demise of Internet Explorer was because Microsoft “ran out of microchips”.

The billionaire was responding to a joke on Twitter about the final goodbye to the web browser that has graced computer hard drives since 1995.

Despite not even being 30 years old, the company decided to officially “retire” the world wide web supremo on Wednesday.

The move dialled up interest on social media, including from US comedy series The Daily Show, which posted a gag about Internet Explorer’s voyage into that good night: “Wow, Bill Gates encourages everyone to get vaccinated, then a year later Internet Explorer dies. Coincidence???”

The joke was clearly a reference to the bizarre conspiracy theories that sprang up around Mr Gates during the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination drive.

Mr Gates, who notably did not post a tribute to Internet Explorer on the solemn day, responded with a wisecrack of his own.

Reposting The Daily Show’s tweet, he added: “I guess we finally ran out of microchips.”

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The retirement of Internet Explorer after 27 long years comes after its usage had shrivelled to a fraction of what it once was.

Anybody who now tries to use the desktop application will find it is disabled and out of support and will be automatically redirected to the Microsoft Edge browser.

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