Internet Explorer
Component of Microsoft Windows | |
File name/executable | iexplore.exe |
---|---|
Included in | Microsoft Plus! Companion for Windows 95 Windows 95 OSR 1-Windows 10 Mac OS 8-Mac OS X Tiger |
Replaced by | |
Microsoft Edge |
Internet Explorer is a web browser designed by Microsoft as its first venture into the web browser market. The initial version of the browser was incarnated from Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft licensed for a modest quarterly fee and a share of the non-Windows product revenues. As Microsoft decided to distribute Internet Explorer "free of charge" with their Windows operating system, they were able to avoid most royalties.
Due to the browser's inclusion starting from the Windows 9x series and beyond, it sparked a three-year-long antitrust lawsuit that lasted until November 2001. The browser quickly overtook Netscape in the first browser war and retained ~95% of its market share until the early 2000s, when popular alternative browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome came to market, sparking the second browser war.
Internet Explorer was notorious for disobeying set web standards by the W3C until version 9, when Microsoft took a new commitment to HTML5 and web standards. Microsoft ceased active development of Internet Explorer after Windows 8.1 was released in 2013, making Internet Explorer 11 the final version of Internet Explorer. It was eventually replaced by Microsoft Edge in 2015.
End of Life[edit | edit source]
On 17 August 2020, Microsoft announced that Microsoft 365 apps will no longer support Internet Explorer starting on 30 November 2020 with the Microsoft Teams Web App, followed by all other 365 apps on 17 August 2021.
Microsoft discontinued Internet Explorer on 15 June 2022.[1] As of Windows 10 build 21387, the browser's functionality has been disabled and attempting to open its executable will instead redirect the user to Microsoft Edge, though it is still possible to run Internet Explorer through various workarounds, such as replacing ieframe.dll
with a copy from an older build; by invoking it by bringing up the Internet Options Control Panel applet and clicking on the Programs tab, then clicking Manage add-ons; by clicking on Learn more about toolbars and extensions or using a .vbs
file with the following contents:
CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true
Versions[edit | edit source]
Version | Release date | Included in | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1.0 | 24 August 1995[2][3] | Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 |
|
1.5 | January 1996 | — | Intermediate release for Windows 3.1x and Windows NT 3.51 to bridge the gap between IE 1 and 2 |
2.0 | 27 November 1995 (Windows 95) 23 April 1996 (3.1x, NT 3.51, Mac OS) |
Windows 95 OSR1 Windows NT 4.0 Nashville (alpha) |
|
2.1 | 1996 | — | Intermediate release for Windows 3.1x and Windows NT 3.51 to bridge the gap between IE 2 and 3 |
3.0 | 13 August 1996 (Windows) 8 January 1997 (Mac OS) |
Windows 95 OSR2 (3.0) Windows 95 OSR2.1 (3.02) |
|
4.0 | 22 September 1997 | Windows 95 OSR2.5 (4.0) Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition (4.01, optional) Windows 98 (4.01 SP1) Windows 98 SP1 (4.01 SP2) |
|
4.5 | 1999 | — | Released for classic Mac OS |
5.0 | 18 March 1999 | Windows 98 SE (5.0) Windows 2000 (5.01) Neptune (5.01 pre-RTM, mixed with 5.5 beta) |
|
5.1 | 2000 | — | Last version for classic Mac OS |
5.2 | 2001 | Mac OS X Cheetah to Mac OS X Tiger[a] | Only version for Mac OS X |
5.5 | 19 June 2000 | Windows Me |
|
5.6 | 2000 | — | From Windows XP build 2210 to 2296 |
6 | 24 August 2001 | Windows XP Windows Server 2003 |
|
7 | 18 October 2006 | Windows Vista Windows Server 2008 |
|
8 | 19 March 2009 | Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 R2 |
|
9 | 14 March 2011 | — |
|
10 | 26 October 2012 | Windows 8 Windows Server 2012 |
|
11 | 17 October 2013 | Windows 8.1 Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows 10 Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022 |
|
Compatibility[edit | edit source]
Windows for Workgroups 3.1x | Windows NT 3.51 | Windows 95 | Windows 95 OSR1 | Windows NT 4.0 | Windows 95 OSR2 | Windows 95 OSR2.5 | Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition | Windows 98 | Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a | Windows 98 Second Edition | Windows 2000 | Windows Me | Windows XP | Windows XP Service Pack 2 | Windows Server 2003 | Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 | Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 | Windows Vista | Windows 7 | Windows Vista Service Pack 2 | Windows 7 Service Pack 1 | Windows 8 | Windows Server 2012 | Windows Embedded 8 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 10 | Windows 11 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Internet Explorer 1 | A | A | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 1.5 | A | A | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 2 | A | A | A | Y | Y | A | A | A | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 2.1 | A | A | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 3 | A | A | A | A | A | Y | N | A | N | A | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 4 | A | A | A | A | A | A | Y | Y | Y | A | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 5 | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 5.5 | N | N | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 6 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | A | A | A | A | A | A | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 7 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | A | N | A | A | Y | N | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 8 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | A | N | N | A | A | Y | A | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 9 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | A | A | A | N | N | N | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 10 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | A | N | A | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N |
Internet Explorer 11 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | A | N | A | A | Y | Y | Y |
Legend:Not available Available Preinstalled
|
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Starting with Mac OS X Panther, Internet Explorer is no longer installed by default in favor of Safari.