Internet Explorer (MSIE or IE for short) is a series of graphical browsers developed by Microsoft that have been part of the Windows operating systems since 1995. It was first released as part of the optional Plus package! for Windows 95. Later versions were available for free download, being released simultaneously with the operating system.
The MSIE browser is one of the most widely used applications, peaking in popularity during 2002 and 2003. Its distribution declined slightly with the launch of Safari (2003), Firefox (2004), and Google Chrome (2008), each of which began to occupy a significant market share.
Since the first release of the application, Microsoft has continued to introduce additional features and technologies. This is XMLHttpRequest (MSIE 5 and above), which contributes to the creation of dynamic web pages, as well as support for multilingual domain names (in the seventh version), which allows you to view sites with a name from non-Latin characters.
The latest widely used release, Internet Explorer 10, has a new interface that allows you to use the browser in both the normal environment and on the touch screens of devices.
Various versions of MSIE for other operating systems have also been released, including for the Xbox. Support for IE for Mac and UNIX (Solaris and HP-UX) has been discontinued.
Internet Explorer was designed to browse a wide range of web pages and provide certain functions in the operating system, including downloading updates from Microsoft. In a time of intense competition for applications, Explorer replaced Netscape as soon as it could technologically support changing requirements.
In addition to the basic functions performed, the MSIE browser has introduced its own extensions for many standards, including HTML, CSS and DOM. The reason was the appearance of a number of web pages that did not meet generally accepted standards. In order to open them, a compatibility mode was developed.
So, the MSIE browser introduced a number of extensions to the DOM, which were used in other programs. These include Innerhtml (provides access to the HTML string in the element), XMLHttpRequest (allows you to send an HTTP request and receive an appropriate response), and DesignMode (provides extensive editing capabilities for the text of HTML documents).
Other non-standard extensions include support for vertical text and various graphic effects, the use of JScript.Encode and CPV fonts in web pages.
In addition, the MSIE browser also has its own plugin - favicon (from the English abbreviation "favorite image"), which is now supported in other applications. Its essence is that a web page can have its own image of 16 by 16 pixels, used in bookmarks. Initially, only the ICO format was supported, but today other types of image files are common, including PNG and GIF.
The MSIE browser uses the default standards provided by Windows. The application also has a user interface for FTP, very similar visually to the "Explorer Windows." Starting with the sixth version, pop-up blocking and tab support have been added to the functionality. In addition, you can add the tab mode to previous distributions of the program by installing the corresponding update.