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Windows Internet Explorer
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial releaseAugust Template:Initial release year
Stable release
7.0.5730.13 (Windows XP)
7.0.6001.18000 (Windows Vista SP1) / 2008
Preview release
8.0.6001.17184 (IE8 Beta 1) / March 5 2008
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
Mac OS X (discontinued)
Mac OS (discontinued)
Solaris and HP-UX (discontinued)
TypeWeb browser and RSS Reader
LicenseProprietary EULA
Websitemicrosoft.com/ie

Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003 with IE5 and 6 but steadily declining since, despite the introduction of IE7.

Internet Explorer was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95. Later versions are available as free downloads and are also included in the OEM service releases of Windows 95 and in later versions of Windows. The most recent release is version 7.0, which is available as a free update for Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later, and is included with Windows Vista. An embedded OEM version called Internet Explorer for Windows CE (IE CE) is also available for WinCE based platforms and is currently based on IE6. Another Windows CE/ Windows Mobile browser known as Internet Explorer Mobile is from a different code base and should not be confused with desktop versions of the browser.

History

Main article: History of Internet Explorer

The Internet Explorer project was started in the summer of 1994 by Thomas Reardon and subsequently led by Benjamin Slivka, leveraging source code from Spyglass, Inc. Mosaic, an early commercial web browser with formal ties to the pioneering NCSA Mosaic browser. In late 1994, Microsoft licensed Spyglass Mosaic for a quarterly fee plus a percentage of Microsoft's non-Windows revenues for the software. Although bearing a name similar to NCSA Mosaic, which was the first widely used web browser, Spyglass Mosaic was relatively unknown in its day and used the NCSA Mosaic source code only sparingly.[1]

Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (the latter for use through the X Window System on Solaris and HP-UX), and versions for older versions of Windows have been discontinued. Only the Windows version remains in active development; the Mac OS X and UNIX version are no longer supported.

Version 1

Version 1, released in August 1995 was a modified version of Spyglass Mosaic. It came with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 and OEM release of Windows 95. It was installed as part of the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Plus!. [2]Version 1.5 was released several months later for Windows NT and added support for basic table rendering.

Version 2

Internet Explorer 2.0 was released for Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5, and NT 4.0 in November 1995 (following a 2.0 beta in October). It featured support for SSL, cookies, VRML, and Internet newsgroups. Version 2 was also the first release for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7.0.1(PPC or 68k) , although the Mac version was not released until early 1996. Version 2.1 for the Mac came out in August of 1996, although by this time Windows was getting 3.0.

Version 3

Main article: Internet Explorer 3
Internet Explorer 3.0.1 For Win3.1 banner
Internet Explorer 3.0.1 For Win3.1 banner

Internet Explorer 3, released in August, 1996, was the first widely used version of Internet Explorer. It was the first version developed without Spyglass source code (although still using Spyglass "technology", so the Spyglass licensing information remained in the program's documentation). Internet Explorer 3 was the first major browser with CSS support, although this support was only partial. Released on August 13 1996, 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 popular version of Internet Explorer, which brought with it increased scrutiny. In the months following its release, a number of security and privacy vulnerabilities were found by researchers and hackers.

Version 4

Main article: 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. Internet Mail and News was replaced with Outlook Express, and Microsoft Chat and an improved NetMeeting were also included. This version also was included with Windows 98. Internet Explorer 4.5 dropped support for 68k Macs, but offered new features such as easier 128-bit encryption. [3] [4] [5]

Version 5

Main article: Internet Explorer 5
File:Internet Explorer 5 logo.png
Internet Explorer 4 & 5 era logo

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, XSL 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 (even though the term "Ajax" wasn't coined until years later.) Internet Explorer 5.01, a bug fix version, was released in December 1999. Windows 2000 includes this version. 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. Version 5.5 also included support for 128-bit encryption. However, Version 5 was the last version for Mac and UNIX.

Version 6

Main article: Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 6.0 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.[6] 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. 6.0 SP1 offered several security enhancements and coincided with XP SP1 patch release. In 2002, the Gopher protocol was disabled and support for it was dropped in Internet Explorer 7.[7] 6.0 SV1 ('6 SP2')[8] came out August 6 2004 for Windows XP SP2 and offered various security enhancements and new color buttons on the user interface.

Version 7

Main article: Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7 is available only for Windows XP SP2 and later, including Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Vista since October 2006. The first beta version of the browser was released on July 27, 2005 for technical testing, and a first public preview version of Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2 preview: Pre-Beta 2 version) was released on January 31, 2006. The final public version was released on October 18 2006. On February 15, 2005, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced that the new version of its browser would be released at the RSA Conference 2005 in San Francisco.[9] 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), and antiphishing 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. On October 5, 2007, Microsoft removed the 'genuine software' validation before install, which means that all versions of Windows, whether able to pass validation or not, are able to install the browser.

Version 8

Template:Beta software

Main article: Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of Internet Explorer and has been in development since August 2007 at the latest.[10] On March 5, 2008, the first public beta (Beta 1) was released to the general public.[11] It supports Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 on both 32-bit as well as 64-bit architectures.[12]

Security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, CSS, and Ajax support are Microsoft's priorities for IE8.[13][14] It includes much stricter compliance with web standards, including a planned full Cascading Style Sheets 2.1 compliance for the release version.[15] All these changes allow Internet Explorer 8 to pass the Acid2 test.[16] However, to prevent compatibility issues, IE8 also includes the IE7 rendering behavior. Sites that expect IE7 quirks can disable the IE8's breaking changes by including a meta element.

IE8 also includes numerous improvements to JavaScript support as well as performance improvements.[15] It includes support for Activities - which allow supported web applications to be invoked without explicitly navigating to them - and WebSlices - which allows portions of page to be subscribed to and monitored from a redesigned Favorites Bar.[15] An enhanced phishing filter (now called Safety filter) blocks access to sites known to contain malware.

Future Versions

A Internet Explorer 9 was mentioned in interview with Microsoft employees Dean Hachamovitch and Chris Wilson, Internet Explorer General Manager and Architect respectively. [17] The Microsoft website for the Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Kit notes when describing the User agent string, "if there is an Internet Explorer 9, you will need to update your website at some future date to handle detecting that release." [18]

See also: Windows 7

Features

Main article: Features of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer has been designed to view the broadest range of web pages and to provide certain features within the operating system, including Microsoft Update. During the heyday of the historic browser wars, Internet Explorer superseded Netscape by supporting many of the progressive features of the time.[citation needed]

Standards support

Internet Explorer, using the Trident layout engine, almost fully supports HTML 4.01, CSS Level 1, XML 1.0 and DOM Level 1, with minor implementation gaps. It partially supports CSS Level 2 and DOM Level 2, with major implementation gaps and conformance issues. Full conformance to the CSS 2.1 specification is on the agenda for the final Internet Explorer 8 release. It has no support for XHTML, though it can render XHTML documents authored with HTML compatibility principles and served with a text/html MIME-type.

Internet Explorer uses DOCTYPE sniffing to choose between "quirks mode" (renders similarly to older versions of MSIE) and standards mode (renders closer to W3C's specifications) for HTML and CSS rendering on screen (for printing Internet Explorer always uses standards mode). It fully supports XSLT 1.0 or the December 1998 Working Draft of XSL, depending on the version of MSXML (a dynamic link library) available. It also provides its own dialect of ECMAScript called JScript.

See also: Web standards

.

Usability and accessibility

File:Favorites.PNG
Organizing Favorites in Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer makes use of the accessibility framework provided in Windows. Internet Explorer is also a user interface for FTP, with operations similar to that of Windows Explorer (although this feature requires a shell window to be opened in recent versions of the browser, rather than natively within the browser). Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is not supported, but available via extension (iMacros). Recent versions feature pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing can also be added to older versions by installing Microsoft's MSN Search Toolbar or Yahoo's Yahoo Toolbar.

Cache

Main articles: Temporary Internet Files and Index.dat

Internet Explorer caches visited content in the Temporary Internet Files folder to allow quicker access (or offline access) to previously visited pages. The content is indexed in a database file, known as Index.dat. Multiple Index.dat files exist which index different content - visited content, web feeds, autocomplete entries, visited URLs, cookies etc.[19] Clearing the cache removes the entries from the Index.dat files but the files themselves are not removed.

Prior to IE7, clearing the cache used to clear the index but the files themselves were not removed. This feature can be a potential security risk for both individuals and companies. IE7 on, both the entries as well as the files themselves are removed.

Security

Internet Explorer uses a zone-based security framework that groups sites based on certain conditions, including whether it is an internet or intranet-based site as well as a user-editable whitelist. Security restrictions are applied on a per-zone basis; all the sites in a zone are subject to the restrictions.

Internet Explorer 6 SP2 onwards uses the Attachment Execution Service of Microsoft Windows to mark executable files downloaded from the internet as being potentially unsafe. Accessing files marked as such will prompt the user to make an explicit trust decision to execute the file, as executables originating from the Internet can be potentially unsafe. This helps in preventing accidental installation of malware.

Internet Explorer 7 introduced the phishing filter, that restricts access to phishing sites unless the user overrides the decision. With version 8, it also blocks access to sites known to host malware. Downloads are also checked to see if they are known to be malware-infected.

In Windows Vista, Internet Explorer can optionally run in what is called Protected Mode, where the privileges of the browser itself is severely restricted - it cannot make any system-wide changes. This also effectively restricts the privileges of any add-ons. As a result, even if the browser or any add-on is compromised, the damage the security breach can cause is limited.

Patches and updates to the browser are released periodically and made available through the Windows Update service, as well as through Automatic Updates. Although security patches continue to be released for a range of platforms, most recent feature additions and security improvements are released for Windows XP only.

Group Policy

Main article: Group policy

Internet Explorer is fully configurable using Group Policy. Administrators of Windows Server domains can apply and enforce a variety of settings that affect the user interface (such as disabling menu items and individual configuration options), as well as underlying security features such as downloading of files, zone configuration, per-site settings, ActiveX control behavior, and others. Policy settings can be configured on a per-user and per-machine basis. Internet Explorer also supports Integrated Windows Authentication.

Architecture

Internet Explorer uses a componentized architecture built around the Component Object Model (COM) technology. It is made up of five major components, each of which are contained in a separate .dll and expose a set of COM interface that enables them to be hosted by the Internet Explorer main executable, iexplore.exe:[20]

WinInet.dll
WinInet.dll is the protocol handler for HTTP and FTP. It handles all network communication over these protocols.
URlMon.dll
URLMon.dll is responsible for MIME-type handling and download of web content.
MSHTML.dll
MSHTML.dll houses the Trident rendering engine which is responsible for displaying the pages on-screen and handling the Document Object Model of the web pages. MSHTML.dll parses the HTML/CSS file and creates the internal DOM tree representation of it. It also exposes a set of APIs for runtime inspection and modification of the DOM tree. The DOM tree is further processed by a layout engine which then renders the internal representation on screen.[21]
Internet Explorer does not include any scripting functionality natively. Rather MSHTML.dll exposes another set of APIs that allow any scripting environment to be plugged-in and access the DOM tree. Interned Explorer 8 includes the bindings for the Active Scripting engine (which is a part of Microsoft Windows) is provided, which allows any language implemented as an Active Scripting module to be used for client-side scripting. By default, only the JScript and VBScript modules are provided; third party implementations like ScreamingMonkey (for ECMAScript 4 support) can also be used. Microsoft also makes available the Microsoft Silverlight runtime that allows CLI languages, including DLR-based dynamic languages like IronPython and IronRuby, to be used for client-side scripting.
ShDocVw.dll
ShDocVw.dll provides the navigation, local caching and history functionalities for the browser.
BrowseUI.dll
BrowseUI.dll is responsible for the browser user interface, including the browser chrome, which houses all the menus and toolbars.

Extensibility

Internet Explorer also exposes a set of Component Object Model (COM) interfaces that allow other components to extend the functionality of the browser.[20] Extensibility is divided into two types: Browser extensibility and Content extensibility. The browser extensibility interfaces can be used to plug in components to add context menu entries, toolbars, menu items or Browser Helper Objects (BHO). BHOs are used to extend the feature set of the browser, whereas the other extensibility options are used to expose the feature in the UI. Content extensibility interfaces are used by different content-type handlers to add support for non-native content formats.[20] BHOs not only have unrestricted access to the Internet Explorer DOM and event model, they also can access the filesystem, registry and other OS components. Content extensibility can be either in terms of Active Documents (Doc Objects) (e.g., SVG or MathML) or ActiveX controls.[20] ActiveX controls are used for content handlers that render content embedded within an HTML page (e.g., Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight). Doc objects are used when the content type won't be embedded in HTML (e.g., Microsoft Word, PDF or XPS). In fact, the Trident rendering engine itself exposed as a Doc object, so HTML in itself is treated as an Active Document.[20]

Add-on Manager from Windows XP SP2 Internet Explorer 6 SV1

Interner Explorer add-on components run with the same privileges as the browser itself, unlike client-side scripts that have a very limited set of privileges. Add-ons can be installed either locally, or directly by an web site. Since the add-ons have a more privileged access to the system, malicious add-ons can be and has been used to compromise the security of the system. Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 2 onwards provide various safeguards against this, including an Add-on Manager for controlling ActiveX controls and Browser Helper Objects and a "No Add-Ons" mode of operation as well as greater restrictions on sites installing add-ons.

Internet Explorer itself can be hosted by other applications via a set of COM interfaces. This can be used to embed the browser functionality inside the application. Also, the hosting application can choose to host only the MSHTML.dll rendering engine, rather than the entire browser.[20]

See also: Component Object Model and Browser Helper Object

Criticisms

Internet Explorer has been subject to many criticisms. Most of the criticism concerns its security architecture and its degree of support of open standards.

Much criticism of Internet Explorer is related to concerns about security: Much of the spyware, adware, and computer viruses across the Internet are made possible by exploitable bugs and flaws in the security architecture of Internet Explorer, sometimes requiring nothing more than viewing of a malicious web page in order to install themselves. This is known as a "drive-by install". There are also attempts to trick the user into installing malicious software by misrepresenting the software's true purpose in the description section of an ActiveX security alert.

File:Benedelman-spyware-blogspot-2a.png
A screenshot of a malicious website attempting to install spyware via an ActiveX Control in IE6

A number of security flaws affecting IE originated not in the browser itself, but ActiveX-based add-ons used by it. Because the add-ons have the same privilege as IE, the flaws can be as critical as browser flaws. This has led to the ActiveX-based architecture being criticized for being fault-prone. More recently, other experts have noted that the dangers of ActiveX have been overstated and there are safeguards in place. Other browsers that use NPAPI as their extensibility mechanism are suffering the same problems. In an April 2005 eWeek opinions column, Larry Seltzer stated:

While there has been a striking lack of actual evidence that ActiveX is unsafe, there has been no shortage of baseless assertions and cheap shots against it. My favorite was the "Internet Exploder" incident in which Sun actually paid someone to write a malicious ActiveX control. The test system brought up all the warning dialogs about the program that you usually get and the Sun employee actually had the nerve to keep whacking on the enter key quickly so they would close as quickly as possible and didn't mention that there were any such warnings. Meanwhile, they also didn't mention that a signed Java applet could also perform dangerous privileged operations and would provide similar warnings. Most ActiveX criticism is simply uninformed, but this example was hypocritical and dishonest.[22]

While Internet Explorer is not alone in having exploitable vulnerabilities, its ubiquity has resulted in many more affected computers when vulnerabilities are found. Microsoft has not responded as quickly as competitors in fixing security holes and making patches available,[23] in some cases giving malicious web site operators months to exploit them before Microsoft releases a patch.

Market adoption

Usage Share

Browser Market Share in January 2008[24]
Internet Explorer, All Versions 75.47%
Internet Explorer 4 0.01%
Internet Explorer 5.0 0.11%
Internet Explorer 5.5 0.11%
Internet Explorer 6 32.30%
Internet Explorer 7 42.93%
Usage share of Internet Explorer, 1994–2008[25]

The adoption rate of Internet Explorer seems to be closely related to that of Microsoft Windows, as it is the default web browser that comes with Windows. Since the integration of Internet Explorer 2.0 with Windows 95 OSR 1 in 1996, and especially after version 4.0's release, the adoption was greatly accelerated: from below 20% in 1996 to about 40% in 1998 and over 80% in 2000. This effect, however, has recently been dubbed the "Microsoft monoculture", by analogy to the problems associated with lack of biodiversity in an ecosystem. By 2002, Internet Explorer had almost completely superseded its main rival Netscape and dominated the market.

After having fought and won the browser wars of the late 1990s, Internet Explorer began to see its usage share shrink. Having attained a peak of about 95% during 2002 and 2003, it has since been in a slow, steady decline, due to the adoption of Mozilla Firefox, which statistics indicate is currently the most significant competition. Nevertheless, Internet Explorer remains the dominant web browser, with a global usage share of around 83% (based on statistics reference). Usage is higher in Asia and lower in Europe. For example, the share is around 94% in Japan,[26] and around 56% in Germany.[27]

Firefox 1.0 had surpassed Internet Explorer 5 in early 2005 with Firefox 1.0 at roughly 8 percent market share.[28] An article notes at the release of Internet Explorer 7 in October 2006, "IE6 had the lion's share of the browser market with 77.22%. Internet Explorer 7 had climbed to 3.18%, while Firefox 2.0 was at 0.69%."[29] Internet Explorer 7 was released at the same time as Firefox 2.0, and overtook Firefox 1.x by November 2006, at roughly 9% market share. [30] Firefox 2.0 had overtaken 1.x by January 2007, [31], but IE7 did not surpass IE6 until December 2007. [32] By January 2008, their respective version market share stood at 43% IE7, 32% IE6, 16% FF2, 4%SF 3, and both FF1.x and IE5 versions at less than half a percent. [33]

Industry adoption

The proprietary extension mechanism ActiveX is used by many public websites and web applications, including eBay. Similarly, Browser Helper Objects are also used by many search engine companies and third parties for creating add-ons that access their services, for example, search engine toolbars. Because of the use of COM, it is possible to embed web-browsing functionality in third-party applications. Hence, there are a number of Internet Explorer shells, and a number of content-centric applications like RealPlayer also use Internet Explorer's web browsing module for viewing web pages within the applications.

OS compatibility

IE versions, over time, have had widely varying OS compatibility, ranging from being available for many platforms and several versions of Windows to just a couple versions of Windows. Many versions of IE had some support for an older OS but stopped getting updates. The increased growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s means that current browsers with small market shares have more total users than the entire market early on. For example, 90% market share in 1997 would be roughly 60 million[34] users, but by the start of 2007 90% market share would equate to over 900 million users.[35] The result is that later versions of IE6 had many more users in total than all the early versions put together.

The release of IE7 at the end of 2006 resulted in a collapse of IE6 market share; by February 2007 market version share statistics showed IE6 at about 50% and IE7 at 29%.[36] Regardless of the actual market share, the most compatible version (across operating systems) of IE was 5.x, which had Mac OS and OS X, Unix, and most Windows versions available and supported for a short period in the late 1990s (although 4.x had a more unified codebase across versions) By 2007, IE had much narrower OS support, with the latest versions supporting only Windows XP Service Pack 2 and above.

Years Layout engine Windows IBM OS/2 Macintosh OS Unix (HP-UX, Solaris)
Vista, WS 08 WS 03 XP
SP3/SP2 		Me 2000 98 NT
4.0/3.1 		95 3.1 OS X
Intel/PPC 		9
PPC 		8
PPC 		7
PPC/68k
Years - - 2006 2003 2001 2000 2000 1998 1996 1995 1992 1988 2001 1999 1997 1991 (1990s)
IE 8 2008- Trident VI Beta Beta No No No No No No No No No No No No
IE 7 2006- Trident V Included Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
IE 6 2001 Trident IV No Included Included
6.0 SV1* 		Dropped
6.0 SP1 		Dropped
6.0 SP1 		Dropped
6.0 SP1 		Dropped
6.0 SP1 		No No No No No No No No
IE 5.5 1999 Trident III No No No*** Included Yes Yes Yes Dropped No No No No No No No
IE 5.0 1998 Trident II (Win)
Tasman (Mac) 		No No No*** No Included
5.01 		Included Yes Yes Dropped
5.0 		? Dropped
5.2.3 Included 		Dropped
5.1.7 Included 		Dropped
5.1.7 		Dropped
5.01 SP1
IE 4.0 1997 Trident No Included Included** Yes No Included Included Yes Yes
IE 3.0 1996 - No No No*** No No *** No Included Included** Yes Win 3.1 version No No Included Yes Beta
IE 2.0 1995 - No No No No No No Included Included** Yes No No No Yes No
IE 1.5 1995 Spyglass No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No
IE 1.0 1995 Spyglass No Non-freePlus!

[37][38]

* Internet Explorer 6 SP2 is only available as part of Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 or SP2.
** The version of Internet Explorer included with Windows 95 varied by OSR release; 2.0 was included with OSR1, 3.0 was included with OSR2, and 4.0 was included with OSR2.5.
*** No native support, but possible with third-party "Standalone" installer.

"Standalone" Internet Explorer

While Microsoft claims it is impossible to keep multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same machine, some hackers have successfully separated several versions of Internet Explorer, making them standalone applications. These are referred to as "standalone" IEs and have included versions 3 through 7.

Microsoft has discontinued standalone installers for Internet Explorer to the general public. However, there are unofficial procedures for downloading the complete install package. Internet Explorer standalone hacks exploit a known workaround to DLL hell, which was introduced in Windows 2000, called DLL redirection.

File:IE6ubuntu.png
Internet Explorer 6 running on Linux in Wine.

It is also possible to install Internet Explorer via Wine.

  • IEs4Linux automatically sets up Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0 in Wine. Supporting Internet Explorer 7 is currently in development; as of August 2007, the IE7 rendering engine can be used with the IE6 UI.[39]

After Internet Explorer 7 is installed, an Internet Explorer 6 executable is still available in C:\WINDOWS\ie7, hidden by default.

As an alternative to using IE standalone, Microsoft now makes available Virtual PC images containing pre-activated copies of Windows XP with either IE 6 or IE 7 installed.[40] Microsoft recommends this approach for web developers seeking to test their pages in the different versions of IE as the standalone versions are unsupported and may not work the same way as a properly installed copy of IE.[41][42]

Removal

Main article: Removal of Internet Explorer

While a major upgrade of Internet Explorer can be uninstalled in a traditional way if the user has saved the original application files for uninstallation, the matter of uninstalling the version of the browser that has shipped with an operating system remains a controversial one.

The idea of removing a stock install of Internet Explorer from a Windows system was first proposed during the United States v. Microsoft case. Critics felt that users should have the right to uninstall Internet Explorer freely just like any other application software. One of Microsoft's arguments during the trial was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability.

The Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks demonstrated that Windows 98 could in fact run with Internet Explorer removed.[43] Brooks went on to develop software designed to customize Windows versions by removing "undesired components", which is known as 98lite. He later created XPLite to support NT based operating systems. Both of these pieces of software can remove IE after the installation of the operating system.

There are a few popular methods for removing IE from a copy of the Windows install disc so it never touches the user's hard drive. A method developed by Fred Vorck[44] involves the manual removal of IE from installation discs. His process has been automated as a feature of HFSLIP. nLite and HFSLIP are automated programs that allow users to exclude IE and many other Windows components from installation as desired. In some older versions of Windows and in Windows Fundamentals there is an option to install Internet Explorer.

Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Some applications that depend on libraries installed by IE may fail to function, or have unexpected behaviors. Intuit's Quicken is a typical example, which depends heavily upon the HTML rendering components installed by the browser. The Windows help and support system will also not function due to the heavy reliance on HTML help files and components of IE. In versions of Windows before Vista, it is also not possible to run Microsoft's Windows Update or Microsoft Update with any other browser due to the service's implementation of an ActiveX control, which no other browser supports. In Windows Vista, Windows Update is implemented as a Control Panel applet.

References

  1. ^ Eric Sink (2005-05-12). "Memoirs From the Browser Wars". Retrieved 2006-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ http://cws.internet.com/file/11708.htm WinPlanet IE4 Review
  4. ^ http://www.pcpro.co.uk/broadband/reviews/671/internet-explorer-4.html PC Pro IE4 Review
  5. ^ http://www.macuser.co.uk/macuser/reviews/16079/microsoft-internet-explorer-v40.html MacUser IE 4 Review
  6. ^ "SMIL Standards and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8". Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  7. ^ "Using a web browser to access gopher space". Retrieved 2007-05-11.
  8. ^ SV1 stands for "Security Version 1", referring to the set of security enhancements made for that release[2]. This version of Internet Explorer is more popularly known as IE6 SP2, given that it is included with Windows XP Service Pack 2, but this can lead to confusion when discussing Windows Server 2003, which includes the same functionality in the SP1 update to that operating system.
  9. ^ Gates Highlights Progress on Security, Outlines Next Steps for Continued Innovation, May 12 2005.
  10. ^ "IE 8: On the Path to Web Standards Compliance - ACID 2 Test Pass Complete". Microsoft. 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  11. ^ Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit
  12. ^ "Internet Explorer Readiness Toolkit". Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  13. ^ LaMonica, Martin (2007-05-03). "Microsoft hints at general plan for IE 8". CNET News.com. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
  14. ^ Reimer, Jeremy (2007-05-02). "Microsoft drops hints about Internet Explorer 8". ars technica. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  15. ^ a b c "How do I make my site light up in Internet Explorer 8?". Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  16. ^ "Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone". Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  17. ^ http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-IE8-Onward-to-Internet-Explorer-9-in-Windows-7-74575.shtml Forget about IE8 – Onward to Internet Explorer 9 in Windows 7 - Really now... By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor
  18. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/DevelopersExisting.htm Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Kit
  19. ^ Windows Core Networking Team. "A bit about WinInet's Index.dat". Retrieved 2008-03-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publiser= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ a b c d e f "Internet Explorer Architecture". MSDN. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  21. ^ Chris Wilson. "Inside IE8 Beta 1 for Developers". MSDN Channel9. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  22. ^ Seltzer, Larry (April 14 2005). "The Lame Blame of ActiveX". Security — Opinions. eWeek. Retrieved 2006-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  23. ^ Firefox Sports More Bugs, But IE Takes 9 Times Longer To Patch, TechWeb.
  24. ^ "Browser Market Share". 2008-02-01. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  25. ^ Usage share of web browsers
  26. ^ Firefox's Market Share Nears 7 Percent, WebSideStory
  27. ^ Global usage share Mozilla Firefox has increased, OneStat
  28. ^ http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=40&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=74
  29. ^ http://news.softpedia.com/news/IE7-and-Firefox-2-0-Are-Slaughtering-Internet-Explorer-6-77994.shtml IE7 and Firefox 2.0 Are Slaughtering Internet Explorer 6 - Out with the old, in with the new By: Marius Nestor, Linux Editor
  30. ^ http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=40&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=94
  31. ^ http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=40&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=95
  32. ^ http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=40&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=107
  33. ^ http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=40&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=108
  34. ^ "History and Growth of the Internet". Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  35. ^ "History and Growth of the Internet". Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  36. ^ "Market share for browsers, operating systems and search engines". Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  37. ^ "Internet Explorer for Macintosh or Windows 3.1". Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  38. ^ "Download Netscape 4.7x & 4.8". Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  39. ^ Beta - IEs4Linux
  40. ^ "Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image".
  41. ^ "IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine".
  42. ^ "Multiple IEs on one machine".
  43. ^ "U.S. v. Microsoft: Court's Findings of Fact". United States Department of Justice. 2005-11-05. Retrieved 2005-05-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link).
  44. ^ Vorck's Windows 2000 Repository

See also


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