Internet Explorer version history


Internet Explorer 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.
The first version of Internet Explorer, made its debut on August 17, 1995. It was a reworked version of Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft licensed from Spyglass Inc., like many other companies initiating browser development. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year. Later versions were available as free downloads, or in service packs, and included in the OEM service releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows.
Originally Microsoft Internet Explorer only ran on Windows using Intel 80386 processor. Current versions also run on x64, 32-bit ARMv7, PowerPC and IA-64. Versions on Windows have supported MIPS, Alpha AXP and 16-bit and 32-bit x86 but currently support only 32-bit or 64-bit. A version exists for Xbox 360 called Internet Explorer for Xbox using PowerPC and an embedded OEM version called Pocket Internet Explorer, later rebranded Internet Explorer Mobile, which is currently based on Internet Explorer 9 and made for Windows Phone using ARMv7, Windows CE, and previously, based on Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Mobile. It remains in development alongside the desktop versions.
Internet Explorer has supported other operating systems with Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX, which have been discontinued.
Since its first release, Microsoft has added features and technologies such as basic table display ; XMLHttpRequest, which adds creation of dynamic web pages; and Internationalized Domain Names, which allow Web sites to have native-language addresses with non-Latin characters. The browser has also received scrutiny throughout its development for use of third-party technology and security and privacy vulnerabilities, and both the United States and the European Union have alleged that integration of Internet Explorer with Windows has been to the detriment of other browsers.
The latest stable release has an interface allowing for use as both a desktop application, and as a Windows 8 application.

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 only a few 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 users, but by the start of 2007 90% market share would equate to over 900 million users. 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%. Regardless of the actual market share, the most compatible version of IE was 5.x, which had Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, Unix, and most Windows versions available and supported for a short period in the late 1990s. By 2007, IE had much narrower OS support, with the latest versions supporting only Windows XP Service Pack 2 and above. Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 have also been unofficially ported to the Linux operating system from the project IEs4Linux.

Versions

Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.x

Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.0 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 the purchase of Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 and with at least some OEM releases of Windows 95 without Plus!. It was installed as part of the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Plus! for Windows 95. The Internet Explorer team began with about six people in early development. Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.5 was released several months later for Windows NT and added support for basic HTML table rendering. By including it free of charge on their operating system, they did not have to pay royalties to Spyglass Inc, resulting in a lawsuit and a US$8 million settlement on January 22, 1997.
Although not included, this software can also be installed on the original release of Windows 95.
Microsoft Internet Explorer is no longer supported, or available for download from Microsoft. However, archived versions of the software can be found on various websites.

Features

Microsoft Internet Explorer came with an install routine replacing a manual installation required by many of the existing web browsers.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 2

Microsoft Internet Explorer 2 was released for Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51, and NT 4.0 on November 22, 1995. It featured support for JavaScript, SSL, cookies, frames, 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 was expanded to 24, 20, and 9 for Win 95, Win 3.1, and Mac, respectively. The 2.0i version supported double-byte character-set.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3

Market share history snapshot
for February 2005
IE4: 0.07%
IE5: 6.17%
IE6: 82.79%

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 was released on August 13, 1996 and went on to be much more popular than its predecessors. Microsoft 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 previous version, because the installation renamed the old version and stored it in the same directory.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4

Market share history snapshot
for October 2008
IE4: 0.01%
IE5: 0.20%
IE6: 37.01%
IE7: 35.81%

Microsoft 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 Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 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. 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. Microsoft 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. Microsoft 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.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5

Microsoft 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 Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, Microsoft released the first version of XMLHttpRequest, giving birth to Ajax. It was the last with a 16-bit version. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01, a bug fix version included in Windows 2000, was released in December 1999. Microsoft 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 Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 to be run side by side with the 5.x series. The IE team consisted of over 1,000 people by 1999, with funding on the order of per year.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6

Microsoft 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, 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 on August 6, 2004 for Windows XP SP2 and offered various security enhancements and new colour 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. Microsoft has launched a website, https://web.archive.org/web/20110304205645/http://ie6countdown.com/, with the goal of getting Internet Explorer 6 usage to drop below 1 percent worldwide. Its usage is 6% globally as of October 2012, and now about 6.3% since June 2013, and depending on the country, the usage differs heavily: while the usage in Norway is 0.1%, it is 21.3% in the People's Republic of China. On January 3, 2012, Microsoft announced that usage of IE6 in the United States had dropped below 1%.

Windows Internet Explorer 7

Windows 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, 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 8

Windows Internet Explorer 8 was released on March 19, 2009. It is the first version of IE to pass the Acid2 test, and the last of the major browsers to do so. According to Microsoft, security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, CSS, and Ajax support were its priorities for IE8.
Internet Explorer 8 is the last version of Internet Explorer to run on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP; the following version, Internet Explorer 9, works only on Windows Vista and later. Support for Internet Explorer 8 is bound to the lifecycle of the Windows version it is installed on as it is considered an OS component, thus it is unsupported on Windows XP due to the end of extended support for the latter in April 2014. Effective January 12, 2016, Internet Explorer 8 is no longer supported on any client or server version of Windows, due to new policies specifying that only the newest version of IE available for a supported version of Windows will be supported. However several Windows Embedded versions will remain supported until their respective EOL, unless otherwise specified.

Windows Internet Explorer 9

Windows 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, improved scores on the Acid3 test, as well as additional HTML5 standards support, approximately every six 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 Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, on March 14, 2011.
Internet Explorer 9 is only supported on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2,. It supports several CSS 3 properties, and embedded ICC v2 or v4 colour 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 scored 100/100 since the test was updated in September 2011.
Internet Explorer was to be omitted from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in Europe, but Microsoft ultimately included it, with a browser option screen allowing users to select any of several web browsers.
Internet Explorer is now available on Xbox 360 with Kinect support, as of October 2012.

Windows Internet Explorer 10

Windows Internet Explorer 10 became generally available on October 26, 2012, alongside Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, but is by now supported on Windows Server 2012, while Windows Server 2012 R2 only supports Internet Explorer 11. It became available for Windows 7 on February 26, 2013. Microsoft announced Internet Explorer 10 in April 2011, at MIX 11 in Las Vegas, releasing the first Platform Preview at the same time. At the show, it was said that Internet Explorer 10 was about three weeks in development. This release further improves upon standards support, including HTML5 Drag & Drop and CSS3 gradients. Internet Explorer 10 drops support for Windows Vista and will only run on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and later.
Internet Explorer 10 Release Preview was also released on the Windows 8 Release Preview platform.

Internet Explorer 11

Internet Explorer 11 is featured in a Windows 8.1 update which was released on October 17, 2013. It includes an incomplete mechanism for syncing tabs. It features a major update to its developer tools, enhanced scaling for high DPI screens, HTML5 prerender and prefetch, hardware-accelerated JPEG decoding, closed captioning, HTML5 full screen, and is the first Internet Explorer to support WebGL and Google's protocol SPDY. This version of IE has features dedicated to Windows 8.1, including cryptography, adaptive bitrate streaming and Encrypted Media Extensions.
Internet Explorer 11 was made available for Windows 7 users to download on November 7, 2013, with Automatic Updates in the following weeks.
Internet Explorer 11's user agent string now identifies the agent as "Trident" instead of "MSIE". It also announces compatibility with Gecko.
Microsoft claimed that Internet Explorer 11, running the WebKit SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, was the fastest browser as of October 15, 2013.

Release history for desktop Windows OS version

ColorMeaning
PinkOld test release; no longer maintained
RedOld release; no longer maintained
OrangeOld release; maintenance limited to WS08 paid security updates
YellowOld release; maintenance limited to most current version available for supported operating systems
GreenCurrent release

Major versionMinor versionRelease dateSignificant changesShipped with
Version 11.0August 16, 1995Initial release.Plus! for Windows 95
Version 11.5January 1996Compatible with Windows NT 3.5
Version 22.0 BetaOctober 1995Support of HTML tables and other elements.
Version 22.0November 22, 1995SSL, cookies, VRML, and Internet newsgroups.Windows NT 4.0
Windows 95 OSR1
Internet Starter Kit
Version 22.01UnknownBug fix release.
Version 33.0 Alpha 1March 1996Improved support of HTML tables, frames, and other elements.
Version 33.0 Alpha 2May 29, 1996Support of VBScript and JScript.
Version 33.0 Beta 2July 17, 1996Support of CSS and Java.
Version 33.0August 13, 1996Final release.Windows 95 OSR 2
Version 33.01October 30, 1996Bug fix release.
Version 33.02March 25, 1997Bug fix release.
Version 33.03April 1997Bug fix release.
Version 44.0 Beta 1April 1997Improved support of CSS and Microsoft DOM.
Version 44.0 Beta 2July 1997Improved support of HTML and CSS.
Version 44.0September 1997Improved support of HTML and CSS.Windows 95 OSR 2.5
Version 44.01November 18, 1997Bug fix release.Windows 98
Version 55.0 Beta 1June 2, 1998Support of more CSS2 features.
Version 55.0 Beta 2November 15, 1998Support of bi-directional text, ruby character, XML/XSL and more CSS properties.
Version 55.0March 18, 1999Final release. Last version designed for Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x.Windows 98 SE
Version 55.01November 8, 1999Bug fix release.Windows 2000
Version 55.5 Beta 1December 25, 1999Support of more CSS properties. Minor changes to support of frames.
Version 55.5July 8, 2000Final release. Last version designed for Windows 95.Windows ME
Version 55.6August 18, 2000Released for Windows Whistler build 2257.Windows Whistler
Version 66.0 Beta 1March 22, 2001More CSS changes and bug fixes to be more W3C-compliant. Add new feature Smart tag
Version 66.0August 27, 2001Final release. Remove the Smart tag again.Windows XP
Windows Server 2003
Version 66.0 SP1September 9, 2002Vulnerability patch. Last version designed for Windows NT 4.0, 98, 2000 and ME.Windows XP SP1
Version 66.05October 1, 2003Released for Windows Longhorn build 4051.Windows Longhorn build 4051-4094
Version 66.0 SP2August 25, 2004Vulnerability patch. Popup/ActiveX blocker. Add-on manager.Windows XP SP2
Windows Server 2003 SP1
Version 66.0 SP3April 21, 2008Windows XP/Windows Server 2003: Latest updates included with XP SP3 and Server 2003 SP2.Windows XP SP3
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Version 77.0 Beta 1July 27, 2005Support of PNG alpha channel. CSS bug fixes. Tabbed browsing. Support for EV SSL certificate. Phishing filter.Windows Vista Beta 1
Version 77.0 Beta 2 PreviewJanuary 31, 2006More CSS fixes. Web feeds platform integration. New GUI. Quick Tabs.
Version 77.0 Beta 2April 24, 2006Feature complete. More CSS fixes. Application compatibility fixes.
Version 77.0 Beta 3June 29, 2006Fixes rendering issues for CSS.
Version 77.0 RC 1August 24, 2006Improvements in performance, stability, security, application compatibility and final CSS adjustments.
Version 77.0October 18, 2006Final release.Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008
Version 88.0 Beta 1March 5, 2008CSS 2.1, Contextual Services. Accelerators. Web Slices. Tab isolation and DEP protection enabled by default. Automatic crash recovery. Improved phishing and malware filter. Uses 6 HTTP server connections for improved website responsiveness.
Version 88.0 Beta 2August 27, 2008CSS 2.1 bug fixes. InPrivate browsing. Smart address bar. Search suggestions. Tab color grouping. Caret browsing.Windows 7 Pre-Beta
Version 88.0 Pre-RC 1December 11, 2008CSS bug fixes. Improved Developer Tools. Changes in Compatibility View. Improved Favorites management and other minor changes to UI. Changes to InPrivate browsing and blocking modes.Windows 7 Beta
Version 88.0 RC1January 26, 2009CSS bug fixes. Minor changes in favorites management and search bar.
Version 88.0March 19, 2009Final release. Last version designed for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2.Windows 7
Windows Server 2008 R2
Version 99.0 Platform Preview 1
v1.9.7745.6019
March 16, 2010Support for some CSS3 selectors, HTML5 and SVG. New JavaScript engine. Added support for graphics and web rendering hardware acceleration, using Direct2D and DirectWrite.
Version 99.0 Platform Preview 2
v1.9.7766.6000
May 5, 2010Support for more functions in SVG, HTML5, DOM. Added support for all CSS3 selectors. JavaScript performance improvements.
Version 99.0 Platform Preview 3
v1.9.7874.6000
June 23, 2010Support for HTML5 , and tags. Support for WOFF fonts. JavaScript and graphics performance improvements.
Version 99.0 Platform Preview 4
v1.9.7916.6000
August 4, 2010CSS bug fixes. Support for ECMAScript5. JScript engine integrated into the core browser components. Performance improvements.
Version 99.0 Beta & 9.0 Platform Preview 5
v1.9.7930.16406
September 15, 2010New UI, Download manager, New Tab page, Search in the address bar, Notification Bar, Add-on Performance Advisor
Version 99.0 Platform Preview 6
v1.9.8006.6000
October 28, 2010CSS3 2D transforms and HTML5 semantic tags.
Version 99.0 Platform Preview 7
v1.9.8023.6000
November 17, 2010Better JavaScript performance.
Version 99.0 Release Candidate & 9.0 Platform Preview 8
1.9.8080.16413
February 10, 2011Performance improvements, Tracking Protection, ActiveX Filtering, paste and navigate, enhancements to user interface, and support for the W3C Geolocation API.
Version 99.0March 14, 2011Improved performance, improved Tracking Protection, and the option to pin multiple targets per page. Last version designed for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Version 1010.0 Platform Preview 1
v2.10.1000.16394
April 12, 2011Support for CSS3 multi-column layout, CSS3 grid layout, CSS3 flexible box layout, CSS3 gradients, and ES5 strict mode.
Version 1010.0 Platform Preview 2
v2.10.1008.16421
June 29, 2011Support for Positioned Floats, CSS stylesheet limit lifted, CSSOM Floating Point Value support, Improved hit testing APIs, Media Query Listeners, HTML5: Support for async attribute on script elements, HTML5 Drag and Drop, HTML5 File API, HTML5 Sandbox, HTML5 Web Workers, and some Web Performance APIs.
Version 1010.0 Developer Preview
v10.0.8102.0 - Platform Preview 3
September 13, 2011Support for Windows 8, CSS 3D Transforms, CSS Text shadow, SVG Filter Effects, Spellchecking, Autocorrection, local storage with IndexedDB and the HTML5 Application Cache, Web Sockets, HTML5 History, and InPrivate tabs.Windows 8 Developer Preview
Version 1010.0 Developer Preview
v10.0.8103.0 - Platform Preview 4
November 29, 2011Windows 8 Developer Preview
Version 1010.0 Consumer Preview
v10.0.8250.0 - Platform Preview 5
February 29, 2012Improved performance and support for more HTML5.Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Version 1010.0 Release Preview
v10.0.8400.0 - Platform Preview 6
May 31, 2012Windows 8 Release Preview
Version 1010.0October 26, 2012Final release. The only version designed for Windows 8.Windows 8
Windows Server 2012
Version 1111.0 Preview
11.0.9431.0
June 26, 2013Windows 8.1 only. Improved support for HTML5 and CSS3. Support for WebGL and SPDY. New Modern UI-interface and developer tools.Windows 8.1 Preview
Version 1111.0 Release Preview
11.0.9431.0
September 18, 2013Windows 7 only.
Version 1111.0October 17, 2013The default browser in Windows 8.1. Last version designed for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012.Windows 8.1
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 10
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2019