14 DAY TRIAL // Some web developers might want to adapt their websites in order to welcome a change introduced by Internet Explorer 10. At MIX11, Microsoft launched the first Platform Preview of IE10, and with it a new user-agent string for the browser version.
IE10 PP1 is specifically designed for web devs to get ready for the successor of Internet Explorer 9.
In some cases, especially for sites that rely on user-agent sniffing, developers will need to do some work in order to compensate for the “MSIE” token increase to “10.0”.
Of course, they could also switch to feature detection, and no additional US String work will be needed. Considering IE’s evolution in terms of modern web standards support, using feature detection is in fact the best way to go.
However, those that decide to stick with user-agent sniffing need to know that IE10’s UA String is: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/6.0).
“Overall this represents a natural evolution of the IE9 user-agent string with only two changes: the value of the “MSIE” token is now “10.0” [and] the value of the “Trident” token is now “6.0”,” revealed Tony Ross, Program Manager, Internet Explorer.
“If your site is still using user-agent sniffing, then increasing the “MSIE” token to “10.0” is particularly noteworthy. Why? Because it adds an extra digit to the string value of the token. Most sites will handle this effortlessly, but some will process the extra digit incorrectly, causing them to identify IE10 as IE1,” he added.
IE10 PP1 can be used to test site response scenarios and for devs to update their user-agent sniffing logic in order for the browser version to be detected correctly.
At the same time, web developers need to stop treating IE differently than rival browsers, since the IE Team is doing palpable efforts to ensure a high compatibility level with modern web standards.
Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Platform Preview 1 (PP1) is available for download here.
Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 is available for download here.