Title: Internet Explorer Content: Internet Explorer (IE); formerly known as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, was a series of graphical web browsers made by Microsoft. It was part of the Microsoft Windows operating system, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95, that year. Later versions were free downloads, or in service packs, and included in releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows. IE has been the most popular web browser since 1999, with up to 95% usage share during 2002/2003 with IE5 and IE6. Since its peak of popularity, its usage share has decreased to 55% due to rival web browsers, and is slowly trending downward. Microsoft spent over $100 million per year on IE in the late 1990s, with over 1000 people working on it by 1999. The latest release is Internet Explorer 11. Internet Explorer was originally planned to be removed from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in Europe, but Microsoft later dropped the plans, and instead included a browser ballot screen with the products, allowing users to select a different web browser if they wish. Versions of Internet Explorer for other operating systems have also been produced, including an embedded OEM version called Internet Explorer for Windows CE (IE CE), available for WinCE based platforms and currently based on IE6; Internet Explorer for Pocket PC, later rebranded Internet Explorer Mobile, which is made for Windows Mobile and Windows CE and remains in development alongside the more advanced desktop versions; and the discontinued Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (Solaris and HP-UX). Windows 10 comes with a new web browser called Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer 11 was still included, but was meant to be used for sites that do not work properly with the new rendering engine in Microsoft Edge. When Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 released in 2021, Internet Explorer 11 was removed in both versions of Microsoft Windows with the replacement of Microsoft Edge. The last version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 11 reached the end of service on June 15, 2022 and was removed in the contain versions of Windows 10. On Windows 10 IoT/LTSB/LTSC (Windows 10 Long-Term Servicing Channel), on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and earlier it'll continue past that point. Microsoft is replacing Internet Explorer with Internet Explorer mode on Microsoft Edge, a newer web browser by Microsoft released on April 29, 2015. ==History== The Internet Explorer project was started in the summer of 1994 by Thomas Reardon, using 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, the Spyglass Mosaic had used the NCSA Mosaic source code sparingly. ===Internet Explorer 1=== 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. It 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. However, by including it for free on their OS, they did not have to pay royalties to Spyglass Inc., which resulted 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 August 24, 1996 (following a 2.0 beta in November 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 (PPC or 68k), 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 this expanded to 24, 20, and 9 for Win 95, Win 3.1, and Mac respectively by April 1996. 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, 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. 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."By having IE3 rename your previous version, Microsoft gives you a fallback in case IE3 crashes. IE3 also scans for Netscape bookmarks and converts them to IE3 favorites." ===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 also 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 also was included with Windows 98. New features were added that allow you to save and retrieve posts in comment forms which are still not being 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 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. & Final version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 does not include IE7. $ No native support, but possible with third party Standalone installer of IE6 Alpha. See also Internet Explorer Mobile. Non-desktop versions of IE have supported Windows CE also. Ł Internet Explorer 2.0 and 2.0.1 requires System 7.0.1 or higher. Internet Explorer 2.1 requires System 7.1 or higher. € Included Internet Explorer 3.01 in Mac OS 8.1; Internet Explorer 4.01 in Mac OS 8.5 and 8.5.1; Internet Explorer 4.5 from Mac OS 8.6 to 9.0.4; Internet Explorer 5 from Mac OS 9.1 to 9.2.2. ¥ Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition requires Mac OS 7.6 or higher. Internet Explorer version 5.1; 5.1.4; 5.1.5; 5.1.6 and 5.1.7 requires Mac OS 8.0 or higher. 16 16-bit version =="Standalone" Internet Explorer== Early versions of Internet Explorer such as 5 had a compatibility mode to run Internet Explorer 4, though this feature was dropped (also, Internet Explorer for Mac users could still use 4.5 after installing IE 5). 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. * Multiple IEs in Windows Web Design —The web developer Joe Maddalone who found the solution. * Xenocode Browser Sandbox —Xenocode application virtualization. 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 uses a feature introduced in Windows 2000 called DLL redirection to force it to load older DLLs than the ones installed on the system. * IE Collection. An installer for the standalone versions of IE8.0, IE7.0, IE6.0, IE5.51, IE5.01, IE4.01, IE3.0, IE2.01, IE1.5, and IE1.0. * Microsoft Support document, with instructions for downloading the entire set of installation files. 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 user interface. After Internet Explorer 7 is installed, an Internet Explorer 6 executable is still available in C:\WINDOWS\ie7, hidden by default. Launching this executable provides the user with the older IE6 interface, however web pages are rendered using the IE7 engine. The IE6 engine can be re- enabled by placing a file named "iexplore.exe.local" into the IE7 folder. As an alternative to using IE standalone, Microsoft now makes available Microsoft Virtual PC images containing pre-activated copies of Windows XP with either IE 6 or IE 7 installed. 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. ==Removal== While a major upgrade of Internet Explorer can be uninstalled in a traditional way if the user has saved the original application files for installation, 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 proposed during the United States v. Microsoft court case. One of Microsoft's arguments, during the trial, was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability. Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Applications that depend on libraries installed by IE will fail to function, or have unexpected behaviors. 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. With Windows 7, Microsoft added the ability to safely remove Internet Explorer 8 from Windows. Microsoft does not allow the dependencies to be removed through this process, but the Internet Explorer executable (iexplore.exe) is removed without harming any other Windows components. ==Related pages== * Web 2.0