Internet Explorer is a discontinued series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included in the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year. Later versions were available as free downloads, or in-service packs, and included in the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) service releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows. New feature development for the browser was discontinued in 2016 in favor of new browser Microsoft Edge. Since Internet Explorer is a Windows component and is included in long-term lifecycle versions of Windows such as Windows Server 2019, it will continue to receive security updates until at least 2029. Microsoft 365 ended support for Internet Explorer on August 17, 2021, and Microsoft Teams ended support for IE on November 30, 2020. Internet Explorer will be discontinued on June 15, 2022, after which the alternative will be Microsoft Edge with IE mode for legacy sites.
Netscape Communications Corporation was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was once dominant but lost to Internet Explorer and other competitors in the so-called first browser war, with its market share falling from more than 90 percent in the mid-1990s to less than 1 percent in 2006. Netscape created the JavaScript programming language, the most widely used language for client-side scripting of web pages. The company also developed SSL which was used for securing online communications before its successor TLS took over.
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, the same release date as Windows 95.
Avant Browser is a freeware web browser from a Chinese programmer named Anderson Che, which unites the Trident layout engine built into Windows with an interface intended to be more feature-rich, flexible and ergonomic than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE). It runs on Windows 2000 and above, including Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Internet Explorer versions 6 through 11 are supported.
Maxthon is a freeware web browser developed by the company Maxthon Ltd., based in Beijing, China. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and as Maxthon Mobile for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 8. Since version 6 Maxthon is based on Chromium.
NetCaptor was an Internet Explorer shell that was in development from 1997 to 2005. It used the Trident layout engine of Internet Explorer in conjunction with additional programmed features to create an alternate browsing experience with a tab-based interface and an expanded feature set. It was an adware/shareware program, but its developer released a registration key for free public use once development ceased.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers.
Trident is a proprietary browser engine for the Microsoft Windows version of Internet Explorer, developed by Microsoft.
Internet Explorer for Mac OS X is a proprietary web browser developed by Microsoft for the Macintosh platform to browse web pages. Initial versions were developed from the same code base as Internet Explorer for Windows. Later versions diverged, particularly with the release of version 5, which included the cutting-edge, fault-tolerant and highly standards-compliant Tasman layout engine.
Netscape Browser is the eighth major release of the Netscape series of web browsers, now all discontinued. It was published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications, and originally released for Windows on May 19, 2005.
Tiscali S.p.A. is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisition of many smaller European Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the late 1990s.
Microsoft has developed eleven versions of Internet Explorer for Windows from 1995 to 2013. Microsoft has also developed Internet Explorer for Mac, Internet Explorer for UNIX and Internet Explorer Mobile respectively for Apple Macintosh, Unix and mobile devices. The first two are discontinued but the latter runs on Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (IE4) is a graphical web browser that Microsoft released in September 1997, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for the classic Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".
NeoPlanet was a Trident-shell graphical web browser initially released in 1997 by New York based Bigfoot International, Inc. and later maintained and developed by its subsidiary NeoPlanet, Inc. It was one of the first browsers to be fully skinnable.
Internet Explorer 9 or IE9 is the ninth version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It was released to the public on March 14, 2011. It and older versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 as a major out-of-band version that was not tied to the release schedule of any particular version of Windows, unlike previous versions. It is the first version since Internet Explorer 2 not to be bundled with a Windows operating system, although some OEMs have installed it with Windows 7 on their PCs, as well as new Windows 7 laptops.
An Internet Explorer shell is any computer program that uses the Internet Explorer layout engine, known as Trident and previously MSHTML. This engine is closed-source, but Microsoft has exposed an application programming interface (API) that permits the developers to instantiate either MSHTML or a full-fledged chromeless Internet Explorer within the graphical user interface of their software.
MSN Dial-up is an Internet service provider operated by Microsoft in the United States and formerly also in several other countries. Originally named The Microsoft Network, it debuted as a proprietary online service on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of Windows 95. In 1996 and 1997, a revised web-based version of the ISP was an early experiment at interactive multimedia content on the Internet.
Microsoft Edge is a cross-platform web browser created and developed by Microsoft. It was first released for Windows 10 and Xbox One in 2015, for Android and iOS in 2017, for macOS in 2019, and for Linux in 2020, and can replace Internet Explorer on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and later versions but unlike IE, this browser does not support Windows Vista or earlier versions.
QQ Browser is a web browser developed by Chinese technology company Tencent. It utilizes two browser engines: WebKit and Trident. Previously, Tencent had developed Tencent Explorer and Tencent TT two browsers based on the Trident typesetting engine, and integration The QQ browser of the WebKit engine 5, QQ browser 6.
