| Internet Explorer 11 | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Screenshot of Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10 | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | October 17, 2013; 12 years ago (2013-10-17)[1] |
| Stable release | |
| Engine | MSHTML v8.0,Chakra |
| Operating system | Windows 7 SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Windows Embedded 8 Standard Windows Server 2012 |
| Platform | IA-32,x64, andARM |
| Included with | Windows 8.1 Windows RT Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows 10 Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022 |
| Predecessor | Internet Explorer 10 (2012) |
| Successor | Microsoft Edge Legacy (2015) |
| Size | 28–53MB |
| License | Proprietary,requires a Windows license[3] |
| Website | Internet Explorer 11 (archived atWayback Machine) |
Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) is the eleventh and final version of theInternet Explorerweb browser. It was initially included in the release ofWindows 8.1,Windows RT 8.1 andWindows Server 2012 R2 on October 17, 2013, and was later released forWindows 7 andWindows Server 2008 R2 on November 7, 2013. It is the successor toInternet Explorer 10, released the previous year, and was the original, default browser in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Internet Explorer 11 was also included in the release ofWindows 10 on July 29, 2015, as well as inWindows Server 2016 andWindows Server 2019. On April 16, 2019, Internet Explorer 11 was made available toWindows Server 2012 andWindows Embedded 8 Standard as the final expansion of Internet Explorer 11 availability.[4][5] Internet Explorer 11, like its predecessor, is not available forWindows 8,Windows Vista,Windows Server 2008, and earlier versions of Windows and Windows Server.
Microsoft adjusted their product lifecycle policies to only support the most recent version of Internet Explorer offered for any given version of Windows on January 12, 2016,[6] and later expanded to Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard on January 31, 2020.[7] Support for Internet Explorer 11, now regarded as an "OS component", is bound to the version of the Windows it is installed on. Thus, Microsoft provides updates only to currently supported versions of Windows. This includesWindows 10 LTSC (formerly LTSB), and supportedWindows Server versions, which will continue to receive IE11 updates until their respective end-of-support dates. The exception to this is the Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC). For SAC versions of Windows 10, Internet Explorer 11 support ended on June 15, 2022, and it was permanently disabled on February 14, 2023. Any remaining icons or shortcuts were due to be removed on June 13, 2023, however, on May 19, 2023, various organizations disapproved, leading Microsoft to withdraw the change.[8][9] Furthermore, despite Microsoft's alleged permanent IE11 disablement, IE11 can still be accessed in some capacity using unofficial methods.[10]
IE Mode, a feature ofMicrosoft Edge, enables Edge to display web pages using Internet Explorer 11'sTrident layout engine and other core components.[11] Through IE Mode, the underlying technology of Internet Explorer 11 partially exists on Windows that do not support Internet Explorer as a proper application, such asWindows 11 and later versions that derive from the Windows 11 codebase.[12] Microsoft has announced support for IE Mode through at least 2029, with a one-year advance notice before retiring this variant of IE11.[8]
Internet Explorer 11 is already retired and out of support (i.e. most often the desktop browser was disabled and Edge took its place), for e.g. Home and Pro (with some paid ESU exception to 2028[13]), with some exceptions such as for the Windows 10 China Government Edition,[14] and the Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge remains, so in that sense the core of IE 11 (its rendering engine) remains supported.[15] Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 (for specialized devices – for example, those that control medical equipment or automated teller machines[15]) has end of support on January 13, 2032, and with it support for Internet Explorer 11 fully ends (if not sooner in 2029 as explained above).
IE11 features redesigneddeveloper tools,[16] support forWebGL,[17] enhanced scaling for high DPI screens,[18] prerender and prefetch.[19] After launch IE11 got support forHTTP/2.[20][21][22] In addition, IE11 supports Full Screen and Orientation APIs, CSS border image support, JavaScript enhancements, DOM mutation observers, Web Cryptography API, video text track support, encrypted media support and an improved HTML editor.[23] IE11 usesTransport Layer Security v1.2 as the default protocol forsecure connections and deprecatesRC4cipher suite.[24]
The "document mode" feature in the developer toolset (F12) allows simulating the rendering behaviour of Internet Explorer versions 5 to 10 to facilitate testing pages for compatibility.[25]
Internet Explorer 11 forWindows RT does not supportJava and other add-ons.[26]
document.all, meaning that code that checks for its presence will not detect it, but code that actually uses it will continue to work.[27] Additionally, theattachEvent proprietary API has been removed.[23]In a November 2013 review by SitePoint, IE11 scored better thanGoogle Chrome 30 andFirefox 26 inWebKit'sSunSpider test and Google'sWebGL test. It tied with Chrome for fastest in Microsoft's "fish aquarium" benchmark for WebGL and came last in Google'sV8 performance benchmark. As a result of the speed improvements, the reviewer said "if you switched to Chrome for speed alone, you're now using the wrong browser." IE11 was also observed to use less memory with multipletabs open than contemporary versions of Chrome and Firefox.[23]
In August 2015, SitePoint again benchmarked IE11 in its review forMicrosoft Edge [Legacy], where Edge 12, Chrome 44 and Firefox 39 were also present. IE11 came last inApple'sJetStream test (which replaced SunSpider) and Google'sOctane test (which replaces V8) but it came second in Microsoft's "fish aquarium" test, after Edge.[33]
Though aninternal build of IE11 was leaked on March 25, 2013,[34] its firstpreview version was not formally released until June 2013, during theBuild 2013 conference, along with the preview release ofWindows Server 2012 R2 andWindows 8.1.[35] On July 25, 2013, Microsoft released the developer preview of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 andWindows Server 2008 R2.[36][37]
| Name | Version | Release date | Works on | New features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unsupported: Developer Preview | Unsupported: 11.0.9431.0[38] | June 26, 2013[35] | Windows 8.1 Preview | WebGL,CSS border image, improvedJavaScript performance, major update toInternet Explorer Developer Tools,[37]hardware-acceleratedJPEG decoding,[39]closed captioning, HTML5 full screen,[40] HTML5 prerender, HTML5 prefetch Windows 8.1 only: cryptography (WebCrypto),[37]adaptive bitrate streaming (Media Source Extensions),[41]Encrypted Media Extensions,[40]SPDY v3[21] |
| July 25, 2013[38] | Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2[37] | |||
| Unsupported: Release Preview | Unsupported: 11.0.9600.16384[42] | September 17, 2013[42] | Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2[43] | Performance improvements |
| Unsupported: Internet Explorer 11 | Unsupported: 11.0.9600.16384[44] | October 17, 2013 | Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2022 | Uses the same build number as the Release Preview.[44] Released for Windows 10, whereMicrosoft Edge is the default browser from Microsoft in this version of Windows. Internet Explorer is set up to run websites, based on legacy HTML technologies, which are not, or improperly, supported in Microsoft Edge. |
| Latest version:Internet Explorer 11 | Latest version: 11.0.9600.22824[2] | October 14, 2025 | Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 |
|
While there were no other releases of Internet Explorer, an update for Windows 7 and 8.1 was released on April 2, 2014, which added Enterprise Mode, improved developer tools, improved support for WebGL and ECMAScript 5.1.[45]
With the release ofWindows 11, Windows Server Insider Build 22463 and later,[46] Internet Explorer is no longer preinstalled on any new devices (the application that is, while its core component is due to Microsoft's integration of IE in Windows), but users can still launch Internet Explorer from the Control Panel's browser toolbar settings on or via the PowerShell.Microsoft Edge is the only preinstalled browser in the operating system. An Internet Explorer mode is however provided in Microsoft Edge to run legacy websites.[12] On February 14, 2023, Microsoft permanently disabled IE11 on the Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) as part of a Microsoft Edge update released on February 14, 2023.[9] IE11 visual references, such as the IE11 icons on the Start Menu and taskbar, were set to be removed from Windows 10 SAC by the June 2023 Windows security update ("B" release) on June 13, 2023, however this decision has been reverted.[8]
| Preceded by | Internet Explorer 11 2013 |
