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Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 : One browser, two experiences

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Similarities
Differences
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Internet Explorer 10 provides one web platform that supports two browsing experiences: Internet Explorer in the new Windows UI that is optimized for touch devices, and the familiar browsing experience of Internet Explorer for the desktop. By understanding the differences between the two, developers can use the same HTML5 markup to build rich, interactive websites that will run in both experiences on Windows 8.

Similarities

Adaptive layout and style support

CSS Media queries and media query listeners support in both Internet Explorer 10 experiences enable you to selectively serve different layouts and styles based on your display characteristics such as device dimensions, screen orientation, and resolution. For more info about how to get started using media queries and media query listeners and to review some general strategies for building across a range of Windows 8 devices, see "Design adaptive websites".

Home

Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and Internet Explorer for the desktop share a common home page, or multiple home page tabs if specified. You can set your home page and home page tabs from the General tab in the desktop Internet Options control panel.

Favorites, feeds, frequent sites, history, and typed URLs

Your RSS feeds are only available from Internet Explorer for the desktop, but your favorites, frequent sites, history, and typed URLs are shared between the two browsing experiences. The following table describes how this data is surfaced across the two UIs.

	Internet Explorer in the Windows UI	Internet Explorer for the desktop
Favorites	Quick Site Access panel	Favorites center
Frequent	Quick Site Access panel	New Tab page
History	Not displayed, but data is used to calculate Frequent sites	History center
Typed URLs	Used to populate search suggestions above address bar	Used to populate search suggestions below address bar

The Quick Site Access panel appears in Internet Explorer in the Windows UI when you set focus to the address bar. The Favorites and History centers of Internet Explorer for the desktop appear from the View favorites, feeds, and history star button (Alt+C).

Note The AddToFavoritesBar method is not supported for Internet Explorer in the Windows UI.

Privacy

Tracking protection is turned on by default for both Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and Internet Explorer for the desktop. You can manage it from the Advanced tab in the desktop Internet Options control panel under Security. InPrivate Browsing is also available in both browsing experiences. On Internet Explorer in the Windows UI, the New InPrivate tab option is available from the tab bar “…” menu (swipe in from the bottom or top of the screen with touch, press Windows key + Z, or right-click with the mouse).

Note All InPrivate tabs must be closed in order to end your InPrivate session on Internet Explorer in the Windows UI.

Roaming

Your Internet Explorer 10 favorites, history, and typed URLs are synced across all Windows 8 machines that you log into using your Microsoft account. For more info about roaming features in Windows 8, see "Signing in to Windows 8 with a Windows Live ID". Your pinned sites from the Windows 8 Start screen are also loaded the first time you log into another Windows 8 machine, but are not synced thereafter. Upon initial login with your Microsoft account, your pinned sites from all previous Windows 8 machines will appear in the order that they were pinned. Pinned sites from the desktop taskbar don't roam, and neither do the sites you pin to the Windows 8 Start screen from the Tools gear button (Alt+X) on Internet Explorer for the desktop.

Script and layout engines

Both Internet Explorer 10 browsing experiences are powered by the same underlying layout and script engines, and thus have the same support for performance-optimized, standards-based features.

Search

The default search provider is shared between Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and Internet Explorer for the desktop. You can change your default and manage your search providers by opening Internet Options, selecting the Programs tab, clicking on Manage add-ons, and selecting Search Providers.

Security

New Internet Explorer 10 security features such as Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM), HTML5 Sandbox, and enhanced memory protections are supported both in Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and Internet Explorer for the desktop. Security features introduced in Windows Internet Explorer 9 are also available for both browsing experiences, including SmartScreen filtering, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) filter, and Domain highlighting. Security settings can be managed from the Advanced tab in Internet Options.

Note Internet Explorer in the Windows UI always runs with EPM enabled and Internet Explorer for the desktop by default runs with EPM turned off. Under EPM, Internet Explorer 10 is prevented from connecting to http://localhost/ by default. You can enable loopback using the built-in Windows 8 diagnostic tool CheckNetIsolation.exe or with the EnableLoopback Utility for Fiddler. For more info, see "Understanding Enhanced Protected Mode".

Touch support

Both Internet Explorer 10 experiences enable fast and fluid multi-touch experiences on the web, and most sites work fine with touch without requiring any special changes. Touch detection features in Internet Explorer 10 such as the msMaxTouchPoints property and the Touch token in the Internet Explorer 10 user-agent string enable you to take full advantage of multi-touch support when it's available. For basic guidelines on making the most effective use of touch on your site and troubleshooting touch issues, see "Quickstart: Get your site ready for touch-first browsing". For general strategies for building rich touch-based experiences across a range of Windows 8 devices, see "Design adaptive websites".

User-agent string and browser detection

There is no way to programmatically detect if your site is running on Internet Explorer in the Windows UI or on Internet Explorer for the desktop, as the Internet Explorer 10 user-agent string is the same for both. Furthermore,

With touch capable hardware, touch input is supported in both.
Internet Explorer in the Windows UI provides limited Adobe Flash support. It doesn't otherwise support plug-ins or Microsoft ActiveX controls and your users might choose to disable plug-ins for Internet Explorer for the desktop using ActiveX Filtering.
Internet Explorer in the Windows UI can run in either snapped or fill view, and Internet Explorer for the desktop can toggle in or out of Full Screen mode (F11).

In general, to ensure the best possible cross-browser compatibility for your site, use standards-based features, detect features instead of browsers, and provide effective fallbacks for browsers that don't support the feature. For more about adaptive layout and touch features, see the corresponding sections above.

Differences

App switch

Internet Explorer in the Windows UIincludes additional functionality that lets users know if an associated Windows Store app is available from the website they’re visiting and offers them the option to contextually switch to the app, or download it from the Windows Store if it hasn’t yet been installed. For more info, see "Connect your website to your Windows Store app".

Application lifecycle

As a Windows Store app, Internet Explorer in the Windows UI abides by the Application lifecycle for Windows Store apps, which means that any given time it can be in, or in between, any one of three states: Running, Suspended, or NotRunning. When Internet Explorer in the Windows UI is in the Suspended state, the end-user experiences it as running in the background. However, although the suspended process is still in memory, it doesn't receive any CPU cycles, and thus sites with running audio won't play when Internet Explorer 10 is in the suspended state.

Under conditions of low system memory, the Process Lifetime Management (PLM) system might terminate, or swap out any suspended app to disk, if the system requires additional memory resources. Although there is no notification or event provided when the PLM system terminates a Windows Store app, Internet Explorer in the Windows UI saves off the state of the browser before getting suspended. For performance tips that are also applicable to websites and web apps running in Internet Explorer in the Windows UI, see " Best practices for Windows Store apps" .

Browser launch settings

By default, hyperlinks from outside of Internet Explorer 10 will be opened contextually. This means that hyperlinks from other Windows Store apps including the system UI will open in the Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and hyperlinks from the desktop including those from desktop applications will open in Internet Explorer for the desktop. You can change these default behaviors by opening Internet Options, selecting the Programs tab, and modifying the settings under Opening Internet Explorer.

Note Internet Explorer in the Windows UI is a type of new experience enabled desktop browser. As such, pinned site tiles from the new Windows UI Start screen will only open in it if it's the default new experience enabled desktop browser—otherwise they'll open in Internet Explorer for the desktop. The downloadable document "Developing a new experience enabled desktop browser" from "White papers for Windows Store apps" provides more info.

Cookies

Session cookies are shared when users switch to Internet Explorer for the desktop from Internet Explorer in the Windows UI (from Page tools, select View on the desktop). Persistent cookies are shared only when both Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and Internet Explorer for the desktop have the same security context, or Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM) setting. By default Internet Explorer for the desktop runs with EPM turned off, so out of the box with default settings, persistent cookies set from Internet Explorer in the Windows UI won't be available on Internet Explorer for the desktop and vice versa. See the "Security" section for more details.

F12 Developer Tools

F12 developer tools is only accessible while browsing a website in Internet Explorer for the desktop. If you're browsing in the Internet Explorer in the Windows UI, you can debug the website by switching to the desktop (from Page tools, select View on the desktop) and opening F12 tools from there. To emulate Internet Explorer in the Windows UI on the desktop:

Enable ActiveX Filtering (from the Tools menu, select ActiveX Filtering)
Enter Full Screen mode (F11)
Enable Enhanced Protected Mode (listed under Security on the Advanced tab in Internet Options)

Group policy

A subset of Internet Explorer 10 Group Policy settings apply to Internet Explorer in the Windows UI in addition to Internet Explorer for the desktop. For more info, see "Group Policy Settings in Internet Explorer 10".

Internet Explorer Settings

The full set of options for both browsing experiences can be managed from the desktop Internet Options control panel. Additionally for Internet Explorer in the Windows UI, an abbreviated set of Internet options can be accessed from Settings on the Windows 8 Charms bar.

Immersive site experiences

With its chromeless UI and maximized screen real estate, the Internet Explorer in the Windows UI is optimized for full-screen, immersive site experiences and website interactions that are fast and fluid for touch as well as for heavy mouse and keyboard use. Using Internet Explorer in the Windows UI you can navigate back to previously visited pages using a swipe gesture, as well as flip forward through multi-page sequenced content like magazine articles by turning on flip ahead in Internet Explorer Settings accessed from the Windows 8 Charms bar.

Pinned sites

Users can pin sites directly to the Windows 8 Start screen, where they can use high quality visuals to display their site brand, engage users through badge notifications directly on the Start screen, and provide jump lists as a quick navigation mechanism within the site. To pin a site from Internet Explorer in the Windows UI, press the Pin to Start button from the address bar (swipe in from the bottom or top of the screen with touch, press Windows key + Z, or right-click with the mouse).

On the desktop, Internet Explorer 10 provides the same taskbar site pinning functionality with jump lists and thumbnail toolbars first introduced with Internet Explorer 9. To pin a site from Internet Explorer for the desktop, drag the tab from the browser to the taskbar. For more info, see "Pinned Sites Developer Documentation" and "Pinned Sites in Windows 8".

Plug-ins

The Internet Explorer 10 experience is optimized for a clean and secure user experience and only supports plug-ins in Internet Explorer for the desktop. The native Flash player in Internet Explorer in the Windows UI provides limited support to play Flash content for sites listed in the Flash section of the Compatibility View (CV) list. For optimal future-proofing and cross-browser compatibility, the best practices are to replace critical plug-in functionality with standards-based technologies. If your site delivers a premium experience with a plug-in, offer a fallback for users on browsers without plug-in support or use the requiresActiveX HTTP header or meta element to prompt users to switch to the desktop. For more info, see "Get ready for plug-in free browsing".

Snapped view

As a Windows Store app, Internet Explorer in the Windows UI can be displayed in either snapped or fill view. When the user snaps Internet Explorer in the Windows UI to the left or right side of the screen, the resulting available viewport width is 320 pixels, and by default your site will be auto-scaled to ensure at least 1024 pixels of layout width for a good default experience with most sites. Similarly, when Internet Explorer in the Windows UI is in portrait mode, it will auto-scale content when the windows is narrower than 1024 pixels. You can override the default automatic scaling with the following CSS Device Adaptation rule:

CSS


@-ms-viewport { width: device-width; }

For more info about device adaptation and adaptive layouts, see "Design adaptive websites".

Tabs

When switching from the Internet Explorer in the Windows UI to Internet Explorer for the desktop (from Page tools, select View on the desktop), only the page and tab you are currently viewing opens on the desktop, and not any other pages open in other tabs. Internet Explorer in the Windows UI supports a maximum of 10 tabs.