Developers
Making my site and add-ons work in Internet Explorer 8
Developer Checklist:
- Navigate to your website in Internet Explorer 8.
- If pages look different from how they did in Internet Explorer 7 or don't work the same way, enable Compatibility View. See Compatibility for more information.
- If turning on Compatibility View makes your pages render and function as they do in Internet Explorer 7, then modify your site to use Compatibility View by default to get your site working immediately while you continue to investigate the issues. Read Update your site to render in Compatibility View for more information.
- If your site does not render or function properly in Compatibility View, try one of these options:
- Verify that your User Agent String detection recognizes Internet Explorer 8 by using the procedure outlined in the Versioning and Internet Explorer Modes document.
- Look for naming conflicts with Internet Explorer 8's new native objects—XDomainRequest, cross-document messaging, ARIA—and their properties and methods.
- Read about other differences between IE7 and IE8 Compatibility View.
- Debug your pages to find out why they're not rendering properly:
- Reduce the page to the minimal HTML, CSS, and JavaScript necessary to reproduce the issue. Read the "Reduction" section of the compatibility test guide for best practices we've developed while building Internet Explorer 8.
- Take advantage of our testing tools.
- Read about common compatibility problems between existing pages and Internet Explorer 8.
For AJAX developers:
- Read Better AJAX Development.
- Read Native JSON Support.
For developers building web page layouts:
- Test your site in 120 dpi layout mode.
- Test your site with 24x24 icons.
For all web developers, read how you can protect your site with our:
In addition, please test our site for mixed mode content on SSL servers.
For ActiveX developers:
- Read about our New Features in Manage Add-ons.
- Check your controls against Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer (LCIE) and DEP/NX Memory Protection. In addition to these, test with 120 dpi to ensure your controls look good.
- Turn on ActiveX Application Compatibility Logging. This can help you debug controls by signaling control installation and instantiation events.
- Read about the new Per-Site ActiveX feature, which enables users to restrict your control to specific domains.
- Consider Per-User ActiveX. This can restrict control installation to a user account rather than a system. Test your control's ability to act in a per-user context with the Per-User ActiveX Conversion Toolkit.
- Protected Mode (Windows Vista Only): Read Understanding and Working in Protected Mode Internet Explorer and test your extensions or application on Windows Vista to ensure they install and work properly. Review the MSDN article Vista Application Development Requirements for User Account Control (UAC) to understand User Account Control in Windows Vista.
- Consider using the ATL SiteLock template for controls build for a specific domain or purpose.
- Review the ActiveX Update Best Practices guide for control update and installation procedures.
- Consult the ActiveX Best Practices guide
For Web Browser Control (WebOC) Developers:
- Read and reference Internet Explorer's Feature Control Keys.
- Review information on Compatibility View for WebOC hosts.
- Learn about Hosting and Reuse on MSDN.
- Read Understanding and Working in Protected Mode Internet Explorer and test your applications on Windows Vista to ensure they install and work properly.
For more information, please review the MSDN article Windows Vista Application Development Requirements for User Account Control (UAC).
For toolbar developers:
- Read about our New Toolbar Features.
- Check your add-ons and extensions against Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer (LCIE) and DEP/NX Memory Protection. In addition to these, test with 120 dpi to ensure your toolbars look good.
- Protected Mode (Vista Only)—Read Understanding and Working in Protected Mode Internet Explorer and test your extensions or application on Windows Vista to ensure they install and work properly. Review the MSDN article Developer Best Practices and Guidelines for Applications in a Least Privileged Environment to understand User Account Control in Windows Vista.
Features that change how sites and add-ons work
This section describes a number of changes in security and architecture that could affect the way your site or add-ons function in Internet Explorer 8. Included in this section are details about user agent changes, accessibility improvements (including zoom), non-admin and per-site ActiveX, Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer, DEP/NX memory protection and Manage Add-ons.
Learn about the new features that change how sites and add-ons work.
Powerful new developer features
This section describes the new features that developers can take advantage of to make Internet Explorer 8 "light up". These features include Accelerators, Web Slices, improvements in CSS support, accessibility (including W3C's ARIA Support and UI Automation Support) innovations in AJAX functionality, improvements in DOM L2 Core support, and integrated Developer Tools.
"How Do I?" Videos
If you are looking for a quick introduction to some of the new features in Internet Explorer 8, these "How Do I?" videos are a great place to start. In a couple of minutes you can learn about a new feature, see it in action, and get a code snippet that you can implement on your site right away.
Internet Explorer 8 Demo Site
You can see most of the new Internet Explorer 8 features live on our Internet Explorer 8 Developer Demo site. The Developer Demo site was designed to show you some of the cool new features in Internet Explorer 8, and is designed show the code in use so that you can quickly and easily use it on your own site.
Virtual Learning Labs
Want to try some of the new features in Internet Explorer 8? The virtual labs walk you through common scenarios and help you build a complete implementation of some of the cool Internet Explorer 8 features.
Learn more about the developer features in Internet Explorer 8.