Internet Explorer and Versions

Internet Explorer has been one of the most popular web browsers in the world for the last 18 years. Internet Explorer version 1.0 which debuted with Windows 95. To say that the web browser landscape has undergone a change or two since the birth of the Windows Start button would be an understatement. Here's a look at Internet Explorer through the years.

Internet Explorer Version 1.0

Release date: August 16, 1995

This browser could render basic HTML but couldn't do much else. When IE1 first appeared, HTML was still in its infancy, containing about 20 basic tags.

Internet Explorer Version 2.0

Release date: November 22, 1995

This was the first version of IE that supported browser cookies.

Internet Explorer Version 3.0

Release date: August 13, 1996

Microsoft added the first commercial support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to IE 3 and debuted the "e" logo.

Internet Explorer Version 4.0

Release date: September 1997

By bundling Internet Explorer with its popular Windows operating system, Microsoft achieved a 60 percent market share with IE 4.

Internet Explorer Version 5.0

Release date: March 18, 1999

By 1999, Microsoft was investing more than $100 million per year on Internet Explorer. Version 5

Internet Explorer Version 6.0

Release date: August 27, 2001

Although it dominated the market, IE 6 was named one of the 25 worst tech products of all time

Internet Explorer Version 7.0

Release date: October 18, 2006

Internet Explorer 7.0 was released in 2006. IE7 was the standard browser in Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

New features:

• Advanced printing - automatically scales a webpage for printing
• Instant Search box
• Favorites Center
• RSS feeds - automatically detects RSS feeds
• Tabbed browsing - view multiple sites in a single browser window
• Quick Tabs
• Tab Groups
• Page zoom

Internet Explorer Version 8.0

Release date: March 19, 2009

New features:

• Accelerators - quick access to web services. E.g. On a restaurant web site, click within the page to get maps, news, information, or share it on Facebook
• Web Slice - keep up with changes to the sites you care about most
• Compatibility View - shows the page as in IE7
• Search Suggestions - get suggested content as you type
• New Tab features - reopen accidentally closed tabs, and group related tabs together with color codes
• Tab isolation - prevents a faulty web site from crashing the whole browser. Only the tab with the error will close
• InPrivate Browsing - browse the web without saving any data (like passwords, cookies, browsing history, etc.)
• SmartScreen Filter - protects you against installation of malware, or malicious software which can compromise your data, privacy, and identity, and also damaging your computer and valuable data

IE8 has full support for CSS 2.1. In addition, it has fixed many cross-browser inconsistencies such as get/set/removeAttribute, default attributes, Attribute object and the <q> tag.

Internet Explorer Version 9.0

Release date: March 14, 2011

New features:

• Revamped Interface - Gives you the basic controls and puts the focus on site viewing
• Breezing Fast Speed - IE9 is much faster than its previous IE versions. Hardware-accelerated text, video and graphics speed up performance that makes websites perform like programs installed on your computer. Also, IE9 uses video card to make everything faster
• Pin Websites To Windows 7 Taskbar - Microsoft have partnership with sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pandora which allows you to see own taskbar complete with jumplist support
• Unified Address Bar - The address bar is a unified box for navigating the site or start a search
• Redesigned New Tab Page - Gives a quick access to the sites you visit often. You can also reopen closed tabs, or your last browsing session, or start a new InPrivate browsing session
• Improved Add-on Management - A new feature called Add-on Performance Adviser gives you an idea about which add-on is slowing down your browsers and allows you to remove it
• Better Privacy Features - The tracking protection feature enables you to limit the sites that can track your information
• Better HTML5/CSS3 Support - IE9 also supports SVG and Canvas graphics
• New Download Manager - Allows you to view files that are downloading through your browser, and notifies when a file is malicious or contains viruses. It also helps you to pause any of the download and resume it later.
• Enhanced Tab Management - You can easily move tabs between windows by tearing them from one window to another. After placing your tab in a new windows it won't reload the page.

Internet Explorer Version 10.0

Release date: August 1, 2012

New features:

• 20 faster than IE9
• Updated support for HTML5 - Now supports async attribute in <script> tag, AppCache API, channel messaging, drag and drop API, history, parsing, Sandbox, Spellcheck, video, Web Workers, and WebSockets
• Updated support for CSS3 - Now supports transforms, animation, fonts, gradients, transitions, text-shadow, and removal of style sheet limits
• Updated support for the DOM - Now supports advanced hit-testing APIs, media query listeners, XMLHttpRequest enhancements, and pointer and gesture events
• Updated support for SVG - Now supports SVG and filters
• Updated support for Indexed Database API
• Integrated spell checking and auto-correct features
• Adobe Flash Integration - Includes a built-in Adobe Flash Player
• Added functionality for touch screen users - Full screen touch browsers
• Flip Ahead - Quickly move to the next page in a website with a swipe gesture on touch screen devices
• New user agent string - Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE10.0; Windows NT 6.2; [platform token] Trident/6.0; Touch)

IE10 NO LONGER supports the following:

• XML data islands
• VML (Vector Markup Language)
• HTC (Element behaviors and HTML components)
• DX filters (DirectX-based filters/transitions)
• Conditional comments (conditional statements interpreted by IE in HTML source code, like: <!--[if IE6]>. Used to provide and hide code to and from IE)
• Content advisor (taken over by Windows Parental Controls)
  

Internet Explorer Version 11.0

This version hasn't been officially released

For Windows 8.1: Internet Explorer 11 was released on October 17, 2013.

For Windows 7: Internet Explorer 11 was released on November 7, 2013.

New features:

• Performance improvements
• All new F12 Developer Tools
• WebGL support
• High DPI support
• CSS3 border-image support
• CSS Flexbox support
• Supports SPDY (on Windows 8.1 only)
• Supports Full Screen and Orientation APIs
• Enhanced support for users on touch-based devices
• JavaScript enhancements
• DOM mutation observers
• Web Cryptography API
• Video text track support
• Encrypted media support
• Improved HTML editor

IE11 REMOVED FEATURES:

• document.all is deprecated (code that checks for its presence will not detect it, but code that actually uses it will continue to work)
• attachEvent
• Quick tabs (CTRL+Q)
• "Work offline" command removed from File menu
• Drag and drop of selected content from IE to other programs like Word
• Use large icons for command buttons
• The ability to view all cookies at once in Developer Tools

IE11 is fast and standards compliant. However, its major drawback is that it does not run on OS versions earlier than Windows 7 and does not offer syncing for that OS!

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge was released on July 29, 2015.

Microsoft Edge replaced Internet Explorer as the default browser on Windows 10. It is also the default browser in Windows 10 for smartphones and tablets. Edge is exclusive to Windows 10 and cannot be used on previous Windows versions.

Microsoft Edge is designed to be a lightweight web browser with a layout engine built around web standards, and Microsoft has committed to updating Edge to embrace new and existing standards that it does not yet support.