OS Compatibility
IE versions, over time, have had widely varying OS compatibility, ranging from being available for many platforms and several versions of Windows to only a few versions of Windows. Many versions of IE had some support for an older OS but stopped getting updates. The increased growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s (decade) means that current browsers with small market shares have more total users than the entire market early on. For example, 90% market share in 1997 would be roughly 60 million users, but by the start of 2007 90% market share would equate to over 900 million users. The result is that later versions of IE6 had many more users in total than all the early versions put together.
The release of IE7 at the end of 2006 resulted in a collapse of IE6 market share; by February 2007, market version share statistics showed IE6 at about 50% and IE7 at 29%. Regardless of the actual market share, the most compatible version (across operating systems) of IE was 5.x, which had Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, Unix, and most Windows versions available and supported for a short period in the late 1990s (although 4.x had a more unified codebase across versions). By 2007, IE had much narrower OS support, with the latest versions supporting only Windows XP Service Pack 2 and above. Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 (Experimental) have also been unofficially ported to the Linux operating system from the project IEs4Linux.
| Years | Layout engine | Microsoft Windows | IBM OS/2 |
Apple Mac OS | Unix | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8, WS 12 | 7, WS 08 R2 | Vista, WS 08 | WS 03 | XP | Me | 2000 | 98 | NT 4.0 | 95 | NT 3.51 | NT 3.5 | NT 3.1 | 3.1x | X PPC |
7.6 9.2.2 |
7.5.x |
7.1 8.1 7.1.2 |
7.0.1 |
|||||
| Years available | - | - | 2012–present | 2009–present | 2006-2011 | 2003-2009 | 2001-2009 (SP 2/3) | 2000-2001 | 2000-2001 | 1998-2001 | 1996-2001 | 1995-2000 | 1995-1999 | 1994-1996 | 1993-1995 | 1992-1999 | 1993-1996 | 2001 (PPC Systems only) | 1997-1999 | 1994-1999 | 1992-1997 | 1991-1995 | 1996-1999 |
| IE 10 | 2012 | Included | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
| IE 9 | 2011 | Trident 5.0 | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IE 8 | 2009 | Trident 4.0 | No | Included | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IE 7 | 2006 | Trident | No | No | Included | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IE 6 | 2001 | Trident | No | No | No$ | Included | Included | Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IE 5.5 | 2000 | Trident | No | No | No | No | No*** | Included | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IE 5.0 | 1999 | Trident Win Tasman Mac |
No | No | No | No | No*** | No | Included |
Included |
Yes | Yes | Yes 16-bit |
No | No | Yes 16-bit |
No | Included € |
Included¥ € |
No | No | No | Yes |
| IE 4.5 | 1999 | - | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Included€ | Yes | No | No | No |
| IE 4.0 | 1997 | Trident | No | No | No | No | No*** | No | No | Included |
Yes | Included OSR2.5 |
Yes 16-bit |
No | No | Yes 16-bit |
No | No | Included€ | Yes | Yes 4.01 |
No | Yes |
| IE 3.0 | 1996 | - | No | No | No*** | No | No*** | No | No*** | No | Yes | Included OSR2 |
Yes 16-bit |
Yes 16-bit |
No | Yes 16-bit |
16-bit | No | Included€ | Yes | Included€ | No | Beta |
| IE 2.0 | 1995 | - | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Included | Included OSR1 |
Yes 16-bit |
Yes 16-bit |
Yes 16-bit |
Yes 16-bit |
16-bit | No | Yes | Yes | Yes£ | Yes£ |
No |
| IE 1.5 | 1996 | Spyglass | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| IE 1.0 | 1995 | Spyglass | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Non-free Plus! |
No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
* Internet Explorer 6 SP2 is only available as part of Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 or SP2.
** The version of Internet Explorer included with Windows 95 varied by OSR release; 2.0 was included with OSR1, 3.0 was included with OSR2, and 4.0 was included with OSR2.5.
*** No native support, but possible with third-party "Standalone" installer.
& Final version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 does not include IE7.
$ No native support, but possible with third party Standalone installer of IE6 Alpha. See also Internet Explorer Mobile. Non-desktop versions of IE have supported Windows CE also.
£ Internet Explorer 2.0 and 2.0.1 requires System 7.0.1 or higher. Internet Explorer 2.1 requires System 7.1 or higher.
€ Included Internet Explorer 3.01 in Mac OS 8.0 and Mac OS 8.1; Internet Explorer 4.01 in Mac OS 8.5 and 8.5.1; Internet Explorer 4.5 from Mac OS 8.6 to 9.0.4; Internet Explorer 5 from Mac OS 9.1 to 9.2.2 and Mac OS X v10.0; Internet Explorer 5.1 in Mac OS X v10.1; Internet Explorer 5.2 in Mac OS X v10.2.
¥ Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition requires Mac OS 7.6 or higher. Internet Explorer version 5.1; 5.1.4; 5.1.5; 5.1.6 and 5.1.7 requires Mac OS 8.0 or higher or Mac OS 7.6.1 with Appearance Manager.
16 16-bit version
Read more about this topic: Internet Explorer