How to detect Internet Explorer 11 and below versions?

Question

I'm wondering how I could detect if the user viewing my website is using Internet Explorer 11 or below versions with Javascript.

It should be compatible and works with all these versions.

How to achieve that ?

If the `string` `Trident` is in `window.navigator.userAgent`. — deEr., Apr 23 '18 at 17:26
@AjAX. Trident is only for IE11, older versions of IE used MSIE — Ryan Wilson, Apr 23 '18 at 17:27
@RyanWilson Nope. It’s — not. `Trident` is in all down to `IE 6`. Both are. — deEr., Apr 23 '18 at 17:34
@AjAX ok. Was not aware of both being in there down to IE6, but still best to check for both in case some ancient computer is out there running older version than IE6. — Ryan Wilson, Apr 23 '18 at 17:58
@DerekBrown , That's not correct because I don't want to detect only version 11 , I get the answer so thanks — , Apr 23 '18 at 18:13

Ryan Wilson · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-25T11:54:15.460

47

Here you go, this should work for you:

//Per Icycool, one liner
//function isIE(){
//                 return window.navigator.userAgent.match(/(MSIE|Trident)/);
//               }

function isIE() {
    const ua = window.navigator.userAgent; //Check the userAgent property of the window.navigator object
    const msie = ua.indexOf('MSIE '); // IE 10 or older
    const trident = ua.indexOf('Trident/'); //IE 11
    
    return (msie > 0 || trident > 0);
}


//function to show alert if it's IE
function ShowIEAlert(){
    if(isIE()){
       alert("User is using IE");
    }
}

edited May 25 '21 at 11:54

answered Apr 23 '18 at 17:26

Ryan Wilson

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Thanks , I want to show an alert if it's true , Can you help me with that ? – Apr 23 '18 at 17:51
@Danny added another function into the example to show alert if isIE() returns true. – Ryan Wilson Apr 23 '18 at 17:57
22

`window.navigator.userAgent.match(/(MSIE|Trident)/)` if you want to do it in 1 line – Icycool Oct 30 '18 at 14:15
@Icycool Thank you for the suggestion. I added it to the answer as another option. – Ryan Wilson Oct 30 '18 at 14:17
@Icycool Why group the Regex? `window.navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE|Trident/)` should do it. – Timm May 23 '20 at 22:33
1

@Timm uhm just old habit of using string pattern in case there are other parts in the regex. You're right in this case the brackets are not needed. – Icycool May 27 '20 at 08:12
1

Use `var` not `const` if you want to be compatible with older versions of IE! – Roland Pihlakas Mar 17 '21 at 09:19
1

Thanks a lot. saved my day – Siva-Dev-Wizard May 06 '21 at 21:11
1

@Siva-Dev-Wizard You're welcome. Glad to help :) – Ryan Wilson May 06 '21 at 21:33

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 15:04

9

Check for documentmode - the IE only property:

if (document.documentMode) 
    alert('this is IE');

answered Aug 27 '20 at 15:04

Andrei Karcheuski

3,116
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score 8 · Answer 3 · answered May 23 '20 at 22:43

8

I'd like to streamline the correct answer. This returns true or false:

function is_IE() {
  return (window.navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE|Trident/) !== null);
}

answered May 23 '20 at 22:43

Timm

2,488
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25

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 08 '20 at 09:47

1

Simpler version, returns boolean

function isIE() {
  return !!window.navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE|Trident/);
}

answered Oct 08 '20 at 09:47

Will

732
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3

FYI `/MSIE|Trident/.test(window.navigator.userAgent)` returns bool. – Steve Clay Mar 24 '21 at 15:07

How to detect Internet Explorer 11 and below versions?

4 Answers4

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