Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) is the tenth, and by now, discontinued, version of the

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems (in ...

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

and the successor to

Internet Explorer 9 Internet Explorer 9 or IE9 (officially Windows Internet Explorer 9) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on March 14, 2011, as the ninth version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 8, and can replace p ...

, released by Microsoft on September 4, 2012, shortly after the completion of

Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2012, codenamed "Windows Server 8", is the sixth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the server version of Windows based on Windows 8 and succe ...

. It was the default browser that shipped with

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

and

and can replace previous versions of Internet Explorer on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 is the fifth version of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft and released as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generall ...

but unlike version 9, this version doesn't support

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 is the fourth release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on F ...

or earlier. IE10 expands on

functionality with regard to

CSS3 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as Scalable Vector Graphics, SVG, MathML or XHTML). CS ...

support,

hardware acceleration Hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware designed to perform specific functions more efficiently when compared to software running on a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU). Any transformation of data that can be calcula ...

, and

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

support. On

, it is divided into two editions with different user interfaces: a Metro app that does not support plug-ins and a traditional desktop application that retains plug-in support. On 64-bit computers, the Metro edition runs in 64-bit mode by default. The desktop edition can be run in 64-bit mode by enabling Enhanced Protected Mode. Internet Explorer 10 is the last version that is called ''

Windows Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems (in W ...

''. The software was rebranded simply as ''Internet Explorer'' starting in 2013 with the release of

Internet Explorer 11 Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) is the eleventh, final, and now deprecated version of the Internet Explorer web browser. It was initially included in the release of Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 on October 17, 2013, and was ...

Product life cycle

On April 12, 2011, Microsoft released the first "IE10 Platform Preview", which runs only on

and later. While the second platform preview was also available for Windows 7 and later, the next four platform previews ran only on

. The first preview release came four weeks after the final release of Internet Explorer 9. IE10 reached

general availability A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impr ...

on September 4, 2012 as a component of

. IE10 was included with the release of Windows 8 on October 26, 2012. A preview of IE10 for Windows 7 was made available for download on November 5, 2012. On November 13, 2012, Internet Explorer 10 and the Platform Update were made available for download to all

and

users.

and earlier are not supported. Support for Internet Explorer 10 on most Windows versions ended on January 12, 2016 when Microsoft began requiring customers to use the latest version of Internet Explorer available for each Windows version. On January 31, 2020, Microsoft released the final IE10 update for

and

Windows Embedded 8 Standard Windows IoT, formerly Windows Embedded, is a family of operating systems from Microsoft designed for use in embedded systems. Microsoft currently has three different subfamilies of operating systems for embedded devices targeting a wide market, ...

, marking the end of IE10 support on all platforms.

History

Internet Explorer 10 was first announced on April 12, 2011 at the MIX 11 conference in Las Vegas. In this conference, Microsoft showcased a demo version of Internet Explorer 10 along with a demo version of

. On the same day, a Platform Preview of Internet Explorer 10 was released on the Microsoft Internet Explorer Test Drive website. It only supports

; later platform previews only support Windows 8. Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 supports CSS3 grid layout, CSS3 flexible box layout, CSS3 multi-column layout, CSS3

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

, and full hardware acceleration. Reviewers' responses to the release of Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview were varied; however, they noted how soon (29 days) after the release of Internet Explorer 9 Microsoft began talking about the next version. While Don Reisinger of ''

eWeek ''eWeek'' (''Enterprise Newsweekly'', stylized as ''eWEEK''), formerly PCWeek, is a technology and business magazine. Previously owned by QuinStreet; Nashville, Tennessee marketing company TechnologyAdvice acquired eWeek in 2020. The print edi ...

'' listed his requested features for the next version, Michael Muchmore of ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the presen ...

'' tested Platform Preview 1's performance and HTML5 support with both Microsoft's and third parties' test suites. In his test, Platform Preview 1 performed better than Internet Explorer 9 but not always better than the competing web browsers. On September 13, 2011, Microsoft released the developer preview of Windows 8 to the general public, which came with Internet Explorer Developer Preview (the first full browser incarnation of Internet Explorer 10). Although Internet Explorer is the last major web browser among

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current an ...

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, ...

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, and

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an impor ...

to support spell checking, it is the first desktop browser on Windows to support

autocorrection Autocorrection, also known as text replacement, replace-as-you-type or simply autocorrect, is an automatic data validation function commonly found in word processors and text editing interfaces for smartphones and tablet computers. Its principal ...

. Internet Explorer 10 was released to manufacturing along with

and

. The latter reached general availability on September 4, 2012 while the former reached general availability on October 26, 2012. A preview of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 and

was released on November 13, 2012. It is not compatible with previous versions of Windows.

New features

Adobe Flash integration

On Windows 8, Internet Explorer 10 includes a built-in Adobe Flash Player. Microsoft and Adobe worked together to ensure that the version of Adobe Flash included with Internet Explorer 10 does not drain the battery or impact performance in negative ways. In the "Metro" version of Internet Explorer, only some of the features of Adobe Flash will be included for battery life, performance and security purposes. Some features that do not work well with touch have also been removed from the "Metro" version of Internet Explorer. However, originally, not all websites can use Adobe Flash in the "Metro" version of Internet Explorer as Microsoft and Adobe maintain a list of approved websites that are, reportedly, video content and some games. In the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10, all of the features of Adobe Flash are available.
On March 12, 2013 Microsoft changed this behavior from allowing only sites on a whitelist to display flash content, to allowing all sites to display flash content except those on a curated Compatibility View (CV) list (blacklist) maintained by Microsoft.

User interface

The desktop version of Internet Explorer 10 (available for Windows 7 and Windows 8) retains the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

(UI) of

with minor refinements, such as removing

s. The Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 (available on Windows 8) includes a new UI, most of which is hidden so that the webpage being viewed takes up the entire screen. The UI can be revealed by a

right click Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical t ...

of the

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

or by a swipe from the top or bottom edges of a touchscreen. When the UI is shown, the tabs are listed on the top of the screen, with a small preview of the webpage on each tab. A button to add a new tab is placed in the top-right corner. At the bottom of the screen, the

address bar In a web browser, the address bar (also location bar or URL bar) is the element that shows the current URL. The user can type a URL into it to navigate to a chosen website. In most modern browsers, non-URLs are automatically sent to a search eng ...

and navigational buttons are shown. Navigational buttons include the Back button (to navigate to the previous page), the Refresh button (to reload active page), the Pin button (which create a new shortcut tile for the active page on the Start screen), and a wrench-shaped icon, which opens the only

menu In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...

of IE10. It contains options such as "View on Desktop", which opens the current webpage on the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10, and "Find on page", which can find a text string (a word, phrase or arbitrary set of letters) in the active page.

Flip Ahead

Internet Explorer 10 also introduces a new feature called Flip Ahead. This works in both Metro and desktop versions of Internet Explorer 10. It allows users to move through articles that span multiple pages as well as search results and other web pages with a "next page" or similar button. This feature is turned off by default as a user's browsing history is sent to Microsoft in order to provide the feature. According to the Windows SuperSite, Microsoft has said that some sites may need to be updated to ensure it will work as intended.

Miscellaneous

Internet Explorer 10 is the first web browser to support smooth

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technolo ...

transitions of linear gradients.''"The State of Changing Gradients with CSS Transitions and Animations"''
''PelBox.com'', published June 1st 2018

Release history

Discontinued features

Internet Explorer 10 no longer features or supports the following: * Conditional comments in HTML (JavaScript conditional comments still work) * DirectX-based filters and transitions (DX filters) * Element behaviors and

HTML Components HTML Components (HTCs) are a legacy technology used to implement components in script as Dynamic HTML (DHTML) "behaviors" in the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. Such files typically use an .htc extension and the "text/x-component" MIME t ...

(HTCs) * XML data islands *

Vector Markup Language Vector Markup Language (VML) is an obsolete XML-based file format for two-dimensional vector graphics. It was specified in Part 4 of the Office Open XML standards ISO/IEC 29500 and ECMA-376. According to the specification, VML is a deprecated ...

(VML) * Content Advisor (taken over by

Windows Parental Controls There are a number of security and safety features new to Windows Vista, most of which are not available in any prior Microsoft Windows operating system release. Beginning in early 2002 with Microsoft's announcement of its Trustworthy Computing ...

or Microsoft Family Safety)

Mobile version

At the Windows Phone Developer Summit in June 2012,

Joe Belfiore Joe Belfiore is an American business executive who has held various roles at Microsoft since August 1990, mostly in the field of user experience. He is currently the Corporate Vice President in the Experiences and Devices division of Microsoft. ...

announced

Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat design, flat user interface based on t ...

due towards the end of 2012, which will include a mobile version of Internet Explorer 10 that offers four times faster JavaScript performance and two times more support for HTML 5 features. It includes Microsoft SmartScreen and supports touch in HTML5 apps.

User agent string

Internet Explorer 10 has a new

user agent In computing, a user agent is any software, acting on behalf of a user, which "retrieves, renders and facilitates end-user interaction with Web content". A user agent is therefore a special kind of software agent. Some prominent examples of us ...

string which has the following general format: :Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; '' latform token' Trident/6.0; Touch) Depending on the system, different parts of this user string may change. The last token, "Touch", only appears on systems equipped with a

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

. The platform token may be any of the following:

Notes

:A. Refers to the Internet Explorer (engine) version, not the Platform Preview version :B. Platform Preview version is 2 October 1000.16394 :C. Platform Preview version is 2 October 1008.16421 :D. This version is only included as part of

Developer Preview, and is a full version rather than a usual Platform Preview. :E. Platform Preview version is 2.10.0.8103.0. Does not replace Internet Explorer Developer Preview included in Windows 8. This Platform Preview is compatible only with Windows Developer Preview.

References

External links

*
Internet Explorer Test Drive
*
IEBlog: Windows Internet Explorer Engineering Team Blog
' at

MSDN Blogs Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was the division of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), and software developers developi ...

*
Eric Law's IE Internals
' at

*
Exploring IE: A Blog for Internet Explorer Customers
' at The Windows Blog *
Internet Explorer Community Resources
' at

Microsoft Developer Network Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) was the division of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers, such as hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), and software developers developing ...

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