Internet Explorer, abbreviated as IE or MSIE, is a web browser launched by Microsoft. Internet Explorer is the most widely used web browser, although it has lost some market share since 2004. In April 2005, its market share was about 85%.
Internet Explorer is an indispensable part of Microsoft's new Windows operating system. On the old operating system, it was independent and free. Starting from Windows 95 OSR2, it is bundled as the default browser in all new versions of Windows operating systems. However, this year's major update only applies to Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP 1. At present, Internet Explorer 7 has been bundled into Vista and provided to XP SP2 through online update. In mid-June, 2008, 5438+February, the latest version of Internet Explorer 8, RC 1, was launched, and users can download and install independent installation packages by themselves.
Internet Explorer has been criticized for its inefficiency and lack of support for W3C standards, but it has to be admitted that it has contributed to the development of the Internet.
In 2003, Microsoft announced that it would not continue to develop the version of ie browser on Apple computers. Support for Internet Explorer for Mac OS also ended in 2005 and stopped downloading in 2006.
Defender: Microsoft
Latest Version: 8.0 Preview First Edition /2008 12 16
Latest test: IE8 RC 1
Operating system: Windows
Software category: Web browser
License Agreement: Proprietary
Process name: iexplore.exe
trait
Internet Exploer provides the most extensive network browsing and some functions built into the operating system, such as Microsoft Update. In the most famous browser war, Microsoft replaced Netscape with the most innovative new features.
Usability and browsing affinity
The recent version also adds pop-up interception, paging browsing, RSS and other mainstream functions. The old version can realize paging browsing by installing MSN search toolbar.
Component object model
Component object model (COM) technology has been widely used in Internet Explorer. It allows third-party vendors to add functions through browser help object (BHO); And allow websites to provide rich content through ActiveX. Because these objects can have the same permissions as the browser itself (in some cases), they are very concerned about security. The latest version of Internet Explorer provides an add-in manager to control ActiveX controls and browser help objects, and a "no add-in" version (under all programs/accessories/system tools).
Security architecture
Internet Explorer uses a zone-based security architecture, which means that websites are organized according to feature conditions. It allows a large number of functions to be restricted and only the specified functions to be restricted.
Patches and updates for browsers are released regularly through the Windows Update service and automatic updates. Although security patches for specific platforms are constantly released, the latest functional enhancements and security improvements are only released for Windows XP.
The latest version of Internet Explorer provides download monitor and installation monitor, allowing users to choose whether to download and install executable programs in two steps. This can prevent the installation of malicious software. The executable file downloaded with Internet Explorer is marked as a potential unsafe factor by the operating system, and the user is always asked to confirm whether to execute the program until it is confirmed that the file is "safe".
Group principle
Internet Explorer can be fully configured through Group Policy. Windows server domain administrators can apply and implement a series of settings to change the user interface (such as prohibiting certain menu items and independent configuration options), as well as restricting security functions (such as downloading files), zero configuration, per-site settings, ActiveX control behavior, etc. Policy settings can be set on a per-user and per-machine basis.
Support network standards
Internet Explorer uses Trident typesetting engine, and almost completely supports HTML 4.0 1, CSS Level 1, XML 1.0, DOM Level 1, except for some typographical errors. It also partially supports CSS level and DOM level. Its own XML interpreter supports XHTML, but Microsoft canceled this support after IE 5.0, which is difficult to access. Like other browsers, when the MIME type is identified as "text/html", it can be interpreted as XHTML. When MIME types are identified as "application/xml" and "text/xml", it can also interpret XHTML as xml, but it needs a small XSLT metric [9] to re-enable xml's support for XHTML. When defined as a preferred type such as "application/xhtml+xml", it pretends not to know xhtml, but downloads it as an unknown file type.
Internet Explorer relies on DOCTYPE to determine whether web pages should be rendered according to the old version or W3C standard. (In printing, Internet Explorer always uses W3C standard. Depending on the version of MSXML, XSLT 1.0 or 1998 65438+ February XSL draft can be fully supported. Internet Explorer has its own variant of ECMAScript called JScript.
Patent extension element
Internet Explorer has introduced a series of patented web page standard extensions, including HTML, CSS and DOM. This makes some websites only displayed normally by Internet Explorer.
criticize
Internet Explorer is a web browser that attracts a lot of criticism, most of which focuses on its security architecture and support for open standards.
safe
Internet Explorer is mainly criticized for its security. Because of the security loopholes and cracks in the security structure of Internet Explorer, many spyware, adware and computer viruses are rampant on the network. Sometimes browsing some malicious websites will be maliciously installed automatically. This is the so-called "forced installation": fill in a false description in the security description of ActiveX to cover up the actual use of the software and mislead users to install some malicious software.
Of course, Internet Explorer has problems not only for one user, but also for most users. They affect many computers, indicating that security problems are everywhere. Microsoft has no responsibility to fix security vulnerabilities and release patches [10] Except for the security vulnerabilities of Internet Explorer, it takes Microsoft a long time to fix them. In some cases, malicious website manufacturers exploit vulnerabilities to attack users before Microsoft releases patches.
Support network standards
Other criticisms mostly come from technical experts, website developers and software application developers based on Internet Explorer. They are very worried about Internet Explorer's support for open standards, because Internet Explorer usually uses proprietary web page standard extensions to achieve similar functions.
Internet Explorer supports some standardized technologies to some extent, but there are also many implementation gaps and compatibility failures-some are secondary and some are not-which leads to more and more criticism from technology developers. The increase in criticism is largely due to the fact that the competitors of Internet Explorer have provided relatively complete technical support, and the applications that meet the standards are more and more extensive.
Due to the wide application of Internet Explorer in the world, when network developers are looking for cross-platform and powerful code, they often find that the loopholes of Internet Explorer, private function set and imperfect support for standards have become their biggest stumbling blocks.
Generally speaking, the code written by web developers should be cross-platform, so that it can run on major browsers? What's the matter with you? The technology of nternet Explorer is very closed, and only a few CSS, HTML and DOM features are supported (and many implementations are problematic). Rivals Firefox and Opera are not only ahead of Internet Explorer in this respect, but also have native XHTML support. Because of this, Internet Explorer has never passed the Acid2 test to verify the support level of CSS standards. Another huge disadvantage of Internet Explorer comes from PNG format, which is only solved in Internet Explorer 7. Nevertheless, the performance of Internet Explorer 7 will be greatly reduced when visiting a web page containing transparent PNG.