But what does ‘Download updated compatibility lists from Microsoft’ exactly mean? After some research I discovered Microsoft collates a list of high volume sites where users turn on Compatibility View, and this option will download that list and enable Compatibility View automatically when using these sites. The default setting has Compatibility View enabled for all intranet sites only, with a setting to enable it for all sites. It is worth noting that the site is added based on the domain name, excluding any sub domain or URL path, meaning that any site hosted on that domain will be displayed in Compatibility View until removed from this list. The site will be added to the Compatibility List accessed through the tools menu of each browser. Sets the right internal parameters to process conditional comments as IE 7 would.Use IE 7 Standards mode for standards mode document.When the browser attempts to emulate IE 7 it will: When the default Compatibility View is enabled manually in either IE 8, 9 or 10 by clicking the icon on the address bar, the browser will attempt to behave as if you were in IE 7. This post will aim to remove all of these uncertainties regarding IE’s Compatibility View and detail how as developers we can control this behaviour using the ‘X-UA-Compatible’ meta tag or header.
What older browsers? Why would new versions of IE not be backwards compatible? If I use this am I going to loose any functionality the new browser offers? Will it look and act exactly the same as when viewed in a native browser it is trying to emulate? Why does this not appear on all websites? This has now been hidden in IE 11 (preview) but the functionality still exists through the menu tools.įor me this is where the questions/problems start. It appears in the top right of IE 8, 9 and 10, stating that it will make websites designed for older browsers look better. Since Internet Explorer (IE) 8 Microsoft have supported a ‘Compatibility View’, allowing users to view web pages as if they are using a lower version of IE, normally IE 7.