Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer 9 was released on March 14, 2011. Development for Internet Explorer 9 began shortly after the release of Internet Explorer 8. 

Microsoft first announced Internet Explorer 9 at PDC 2009, and spoke mainly about how it takes advantage of hardware acceleration in DirectX to improve the performance of web applications and quality of web typography. 

At MIX 10, Microsoft showed and publicly released the first Platform Preview for Internet Explorer 9, a frame for IE9’s engine not containing any UI of the browser. 

Leading up to the release of the final browser, Microsoft released updated platform previews, each featuring improved JavaScript compiling (32-bit version), improved scores on the Acid3 test, as well as additional HTML5 standards support, approximately every 6 weeks. 

Ultimately, eight platform previews were released. The first public beta was released at a special event in San Francisco, which was themed around "the beauty of the web". 

The release candidate was released on February 10, 2011, and featured improved performance, refinements to the UI, and further standards support. 

The final version was released during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music and film festival in Austin, Texas, on March 14, 2011.

Internet Explorer 9 is only supported on Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008. 

It supports several CSS 3 properties (including border-radius, box-shadow, etc.), embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System. 

The 32-bit version has faster JavaScript performance, this being due to a new JavaScript engine called "Chakra". 

It also features hardware accelerated graphics rendering using Direct2D, hardware-accelerated text rendering using DirectWrite, hardware-accelerated video rendering using Media Foundation, imaging support provided by Windows Imaging Component, and high fidelity printing powered by the XPS print pipeline. 

IE9 also supports the HTML5 video and audio tags and the Web Open Font Format. 

Internet Explorer 9 initially scored 95/100 on the Acid3 test, but has passed 100/100 since the test was updated in September 2011.

Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 was released on March 19, 2009. It had been in development since August 2007 at the latest. 

On March 5, 2008, the first public beta (Beta 1) was released to the general public. 

On August 27, 2008, the second public beta (Beta 2) was released. It is supported in Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 on both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RC1 was released on January 26, 2009. Internet Explorer 8 "Final" was released on March 19, 2009. Security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, CSS, and Ajax support are Microsoft's priorities for IE8. 

It includes much stricter compliance with web standards, including a planned full Cascading Style Sheets 2.1 compliance for the release version. All of these changes allowed Internet Explorer 8 to pass the Acid2 test. 

However, to prevent compatibility issues, IE8 also includes the IE7 rendering behavior. Sites that expect IE7 quirks can disable IE8's breaking changes by including a meta element in the HEAD section of the HTML document. 

IE8 also includes numerous improvements to JavaScript support as well as performance improvements, although it still does not pass the Acid3 test, with version 8.0 scoring 20/100. 

It includes support for accelerators, which allow supported web applications to be invoked without explicitly navigating to them; and WebSlices, which allows portions of a page to be subscribed to and monitored from a redesigned Favorites Bar. 

Other features include InPrivate privacy features and a SmartScreen phishing filter.

Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7 was released on October 18, 2006. It includes bug fixes, enhancements to its support for web standards, tabbed browsing with tab preview and management, a multiple-engine search box, a web feeds reader, Internationalized Domain Name support (IDN), Extended Validation Certificate support, and an anti-phishing filter. 

With IE7, Internet Explorer has been decoupled from the Windows Shell—unlike previous versions, the Internet Explorer ActiveX control is not hosted in the Windows Explorer process, but rather runs in a separate Internet Explorer process. 

It is included with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and is available for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and later. 

The original release of Internet Explorer 7 required the computer to pass a Windows Genuine Advantage validation check prior to installing, but on October 5, 2007, Microsoft removed this requirement. 

As some statistics show, by mid-2008, Internet Explorer 7 market share exceeded that of Internet Explorer 6 in a number of regions.

Windows Internet Explorer 7 (abbreviated as IE7) is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. 

Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years. 

It ships as the default browser in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and is offered as a replacement for Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. 

Starting from this version, the new Internet Explorer versions do not work with Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000 and Windows Me. As of January 2011, estimates of IE7's global market share were 9-11%.

Some portions of the underlying architecture, including the rendering engine and security framework, have been improved. 

New features include tabbed browsing, page zooming, an integrated search box, a feed reader, better internationalization, and improved support for web standards, although it does not pass the Acid2 or Acid3 tests. Security enhancements include a phishing filter, stronger encryption on Windows Vista (256-bit from 128-bit in XP), and a "Delete browsing history" button to easily clear private data.

IE7 was superseded by Internet Explorer 8 in March 2009.

Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 6 was released on August 27, 2001, a few months before Windows XP. 

This version included DHTML enhancements, content restricted inline frames, and partial support of CSS level 1, DOM level 1, and SMIL 2.0. 

The MSXML engine was also updated to version 3.0. Other new features included a new version of the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK), Media bar, Windows Messenger integration, fault collection, automatic image resizing, P3P, and a new look-and-feel that was in line with the Luna visual style of Windows XP, when used in Windows XP. 

Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 offered several security enhancements and coincided with the Windows XP SP1 patch release. 

In 2002, the Gopher protocol was disabled, and support for it was dropped in Internet Explorer 7. 

Internet Explorer 6.0 SV1 came out August 6, 2004 for Windows XP SP2 and offered various security enhancements and new color buttons on the user interface. 

Internet Explorer 6 updated the original 'blue e' logo to a lighter blue and more 3D look. 

Microsoft now considers IE6 to be an obsolete product and recommends that users upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. 

Some corporate IT users have not upgraded despite this, in part because some still use Windows 2000, which will not run Internet Explorer 7 or above.

Its usage is 8.3% percent globally in December 2011, and depending to the country the usage differs heavily: while the usage in Norway is 0.2%, it's 27.9% in the Peoples Republic of China. 

On January 3, 2012, Microsoft announced that usage of IE6 in the United States had dropped below 1%.

Trident Layout Engine

Trident (also known as MSHTML) is the name of the layout engine for the Microsoft Windows version of Internet Explorer.

It was first introduced with the release of Internet Explorer version 4.0 in October 1997; it has been steadily upgraded and remains in use today. For versions 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer, Microsoft made significant changes to the Trident layout engine to improve compliance with web standards and add support for new technologies. 

With version 9 of Internet Explorer, Microsoft intends to comply with many modern web standards, and also intends to significantly update the layout engine to be more competitive and modern compared to other current layout engines.

Trident was designed as a software component to allow software developers to easily add web browsing functionality to their own applications. It presents a COM interface for accessing and editing web pages in any COM-supported environment, like C++ and .NET. 

For instance, a web browser control can be added to a C++ program and Trident can then be used to access the page currently displayed in the web browser and retrieve element values. Events from the web browser control can also be captured. Trident functionality becomes available by linking the file mshtml.dll to the software project.

Trident-based applications

All versions of Internet Explorer for Windows from 4.0 onwards use Trident, and it is also used by various other web browsers and software components (see Internet Explorer shells). In Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000, it is also used for the Windows file manager/shell, Windows Explorer. 

The Add/Remove Programs tool in Windows 2000 uses Trident to render the list of installed programs, and in Windows XP it is also used for the User Accounts Control Panel, which is an HTML Application. Trident however was not used by the Internet Explorer for Mac (which uses Tasman), nor by the early versions of Internet Explorer Mobile.

Some other Trident-based applications include:

    AOL Explorer, a web browser
    AOL Instant Messenger 6.x, which uses Trident to render conversation and profile windows, and advertisement panels
    Avant Browser
    Bento Browser (built into Winamp)
    EA Link, incompatible with Trident as of Internet Explorer 7 RC2
    Enigma, a web browser
    Google Talk, which uses Trident to render chat windows and profile cards
    GreenBrowser, which is also presented at the BrowserChoice.eu page
    IE Tab, a Firefox and Google Chrome add-on used to render pages with Trident within the Firefox or Chrome user interface.
    iTVmediaPlayer, a free premium TV desktop app, developed by BitMar Networks
    Impulse (content delivery), uses Trident to render "Explore" page, as well as several of the "Community" pages
    iRider, a web browser
    LimeWire, which renders the page 'New@Lime'
    Lunascape, developed by Lunascape Corporation
    Maxthon, which uses the Trident engine while adding features not built into IE7
    MediaBrowser, customized browsers, especially for Nintendo
    MenuBox, a web browser
    Microsoft Compiled HTML Help
    Microsoft Encarta and related products
    Microsoft InfoPath
    Microsoft Outlook which uses Trident to render HTML Messages (prior to Outlook 2007) and the "Outlook Today" screen
    Microsoft Outlook Express, which uses Trident to render HTML Messages
    Microsoft Visual InterDev 6 uses Trident in editing mode as visual HTML designer
    Microsoft Visual Studio 2002-2005 use Trident in editing mode to provide visual ASP.NET/HTML designer
    MSN Messenger, which uses it to produce Flash-based "winks" and games, and for all advertisements shown in the advertisement banner
    NeoPlanet, a web browser
    NetCaptor, a web browser
    Netscape Browser (Netscape 8), which used Trident to render web pages in IE mode
    Pyjamas, a python Widget set Toolkit. Embedding IWebBrowser2 as an Active-X component and accessing the COM interface, Pyjamas uses Trident for the Desktop version, through the python win32 "comtypes" library.
    RealNetworks
    Sleipnir, a web browser
    SlimBrowser, a web browser
    Skype, a VoIP software renders HTML data with Trident.
    TheWorld Browser, a web browser
    TomeRaider, an ebook reader
    Tencent Traveler, a web browser
    ThreeTeeth Browser, a lightweight web browser.
    UltraBrowser, a web browser
    Valve's Steam client, previous versions of which used Trident to render the "Store", "Update News" and "Community" sections as well as the Steam in-game browser and MOTD screens in Valve games. The Steam client was recently updated to use WebKit instead of Trident for these features.
    WebbIE, a web browser
    Windows Live Writer, which uses Trident for its editor.
    Windows Media Player, which uses Trident to render the "Media Information" pages.

Internet Explorer Shell

An Internet Explorer shell is any computer software that uses the Trident rendering engine of the Internet Explorer web browser. Although the term "Trident shell" is probably more accurate for describing these applications (including Internet Explorer itself), the term "Internet Explorer shell", or "IE shell", is in common parlance. 

This means that these software products are not actually full-fledged web browsers in their own right but are simply an alternate interface for Internet Explorer; they share the same limitations of the Trident engine, typically contain the same bugs as IE browsers based on the same version of Trident, and any security vulnerabilities found in IE will generally apply to these browsers as well. 

Strictly speaking, programs that use Tasman (layout engine), used in Internet Explorer 5 for Apple Mac, are also IE shells, but, because Internet Explorer for Mac was discontinued in 2003, and Tasman was further developed independent of IE, it tends to be thought of as a separate layout engine.

IE shells

These applications supplement some of Internet Explorer's usual user interface components for browsing, adding features such as popup blocking and tabbed browsing. 

For example, MSN Explorer can be considered an Internet Explorer shell, in that it is essentially an expansion of IE with added MSN-related functionality. A more complete list of Trident-based browsers can be found under the list of web browsers.

    AOL Explorer 

    Avant Browser
    Deepnet Explorer
    Enigma Browser
    GreenBrowser
    IE Tab 

    iTVmediaPlayer
    Lunascape
    Maxthon

    MenuBox
    MSN Explorer
    NeoPlanet 

    NetCaptor

    Netscape Browser 8.x (used both Trident and Gecko)
    Sleipnir
    SlimBrowser
    Tencent Traveler
    TomeRaider
    UltraBrowser
    WebbIE
    Yahoo! Browser.

Internet Explorer 1 - 5 Versions

Internet Explorer 1

The first version of Internet Explorer (later referred to as Internet Explorer 1) made its debut on August 16, 1995. It was a reworked version of Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft had licensed, like many other companies initiating browser development, from Spyglass Inc. 

It came with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 and the OEM release of Windows 95, and was installed as part of the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Plus!.[ The Internet Explorer team began with about six people in early development. 

Internet Explorer 1.5 was released several months later for Windows NT and added support for basic table rendering. By including it free of charge on their OS, they did not have to pay royalties to Spyglass Inc., resulting in a lawsuit and a multi-million USD settlement.

Internet Explorer 2

Internet Explorer 2 was released for Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5, and NT 4.0 on November 22, 1995 . It featured support for SSL, cookies, VRML, RSA, and Internet newsgroups. Version 2 was also the first release for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7.0.1 , although the Mac version was not released until January 1996 for PPC, and April for 68k. 

Version 2.1 for the Mac came out in August 1996, although by this time, Windows was getting 3.0. Version 2 was included in Windows 95 OSR 1 and Microsoft's Internet Starter Kit for Windows 95 in early 1996. 

It launched with twelve languages, including English, but by April 1996, this expanded to 24, 20, and 9 for Win 95, Win 3.1, and Mac, respectively. The 2.0i version supported double-byte character-set. 

Internet Explorer 3

Internet Explorer 3 was released on August 13, 1996, and went on to be much more popular than its predecessors. Internet Explorer 3 was the first major browser with CSS support, although this support was only partial. 

It also introduced support for ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the PICS system for content metadata. Version 3 also came bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version of the Windows Address Book, and was itself included with Windows 95 OSR 2. 

Version 3 proved to be the first more popular version of Internet Explorer, bringing with it increased scrutiny. In the months following its release, a number of security and privacy vulnerabilities were found by researchers and hackers. This version of Internet Explorer was the first to have the 'blue e' logo. The Internet Explorer team consisted of roughly 100 people during the development of three months. 

The first major IE security hole, the Princeton Word Macro Virus Loophole, was discovered on August 22, 1996 in IE3. Backwards compatibility was handled by allowing users who upgraded to IE3 to still use the last IE, because the installation converted the previous version to a separate directory. 

Internet Explorer 4
Internet Explorer 4, released in September 1997, deepened the level of integration between the web browser and the underlying operating system. Installing version 4 on a Windows 95 or Windows NT 4 machine and choosing Windows Desktop Update would result in the traditional Windows Explorer being replaced by a version more akin to a web browser interface, as well as the Windows desktop itself being web-enabled via Active Desktop. 

The integration with Windows, however, was subject to numerous packaging criticisms (see United States v. Microsoft). This option was no longer available with the installers for later versions of Internet Explorer, but was not removed from the system if already installed. Internet Explorer 4 introduced support for Group Policy, allowing companies to configure and lock down many aspects of the browser's configuration as well as support for offline browsing. 

Internet Mail and News was replaced with Outlook Express, and Microsoft Chat and an improved NetMeeting were also included. This version was also included with Windows 98. New features that allowed users to save and retrieve posts in comment forms were added, but they are not used today. Internet Explorer 4.5 offered new features such as easier 128-bit encryption. It also offered a dramatic stability improvement over prior versions, particularly the 68k version, which was especially prone to freezing.

Internet Explorer 5

Internet Explorer 5, launched on March 18, 1999, and subsequently included with Windows 98 Second Edition and bundled with Office 2000, was another significant release that supported bi-directional text, ruby characters, XML, XSLT, and the ability to save web pages in MHTML format. IE5 was bundled with Outlook Express 5. 

Also, with the release of Internet Explorer 5.0, Microsoft released the first version of XMLHttpRequest, giving birth to Ajax . It was the last with a 16-bit version. Internet Explorer 5.01, a bug fix version included in Windows 2000, was released in December 1999. 

Internet Explorer 5.5 followed in July 2000, improving its print preview capabilities, CSS and HTML standards support, and developer APIs; this version was bundled with Windows Me. 

However, version 5 was the last version for Mac and UNIX. Version 5.5 was the last to have Compatibility Mode, which allowed Internet Explorer 4 to be run side by side with the 5.x. The IE team consisted of over 1,000 people by 1999, with funding on the order of US$100 million per year.