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Why does Internet Explorer use IE7 as standard rendering mode for a HTML5 page instead of the most actual and available IE on client? I didn't find an official comment from Microsoft.

A page like this is rendered with IE7 instead of installed IE11:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <title></title>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

Note: This topic is not about how to force IE explorer to use another rendering mode (-> solution). It's about why IE7 is used in standard mode.

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gogcam
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    Possible duplicate of [IE11 Document mode defaults to IE7. How to reset?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27272454/ie11-document-mode-defaults-to-ie7-how-to-reset) – mplungjan Sep 08 '16 at 09:43

1 Answers1

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IE11 does this for intranet websites because microsoft believes most intranet websites are best viewed in IE7 mode. This can be turned of:

IE11 Document mode defaults to IE7. How to reset?

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Bob Brinks
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  • Thanks. But why does microsoft believe that the page is best viewed in IE7 (released in 2006) instead of the most actual installed IE? Makes no sense. – gogcam Sep 08 '16 at 10:50
  • Hmm donno ask bill@microsft.com – Bob Brinks Sep 08 '16 at 11:05
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    @gogcam - It's all the fault of poor web application developers really. When IE6/IE7 had the browser market almost all to themselves, some developers, especially those for the intranet market, decided that they'd only support those browsers. Which meant that the apps broke horribly on standards compliant browsers. Since the corporate market is very important to Microsoft, as an interim measure, they decided it would be best to default their later browsers to support those broken intranet apps, while allowing the internet apps to move forward. Now Edge is able to ditch that interim measure. – Alohci Sep 08 '16 at 12:19
  • @Alohci Thanks! This was the answer I was looking for. – gogcam Sep 08 '16 at 13:00
  • I've also found the following link: "The Web Browser Control is - by default - perpetually stuck in IE 7 rendering mode. Even though we're now up to IE 11 and a reasonably HTML5 compatible browser, the Web Browser Control always uses the IE 7 rendering engine by default. This is because the original versions of the ActiveX control used this mode and for backwards compatibility the Control continues this outdated and very HTML5 unfriendly default." https://weblog.west-wind.com/posts/2011/May/21/Web-Browser-Control-Specifying-the-IE-Version – gogcam Sep 08 '16 at 13:01
  • @gogcam really? – Bob Brinks Sep 08 '16 at 13:01
  • @BobBrinks I think so. I just quoted from the link above. I can't understand it, either. – gogcam Sep 09 '16 at 12:51