How to detect IE11?

Question

When I want to detect IE I use this code:

function getInternetExplorerVersion()
{
  var rv = -1;
  if (navigator.appName == 'Microsoft Internet Explorer')
  {
    var ua = navigator.userAgent;
    var re  = new RegExp("MSIE ([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})");
    if (re.exec(ua) != null)
      rv = parseFloat( RegExp.$1 );
  }
  return rv;
}
function checkVersion()
{
  var msg = "You're not using Internet Explorer.";
  var ver = getInternetExplorerVersion();

  if ( ver > -1 )
  {
    msg = "You are using IE " + ver;
  }
  alert( msg );
}

But IE11 is returning "You're not using Internet Explorer". How can I detect it?

Solution 1

IE11 no longer reports as MSIE, according to this list of changes it's intentional to avoid mis-detection.

What you can do if you really want to know it's IE is to detect the Trident/ string in the user agent if navigator.appName returns Netscape, something like (the untested);

function getInternetExplorerVersion()
{
  var rv = -1;
  if (navigator.appName == 'Microsoft Internet Explorer')
  {
    var ua = navigator.userAgent;
    var re = new RegExp("MSIE ([0-9]{1,}[\\.0-9]{0,})");
    if (re.exec(ua) != null)
      rv = parseFloat( RegExp.$1 );
  }
  else if (navigator.appName == 'Netscape')
  {
    var ua = navigator.userAgent;
    var re  = new RegExp("Trident/.*rv:([0-9]{1,}[\\.0-9]{0,})");
    if (re.exec(ua) != null)
      rv = parseFloat( RegExp.$1 );
  }
  return rv;
}

console.log('IE version:', getInternetExplorerVersion());

Note that IE11 (afaik) still is in preview, and the user agent may change before release.

Solution 2

Use !(window.ActiveXObject) && "ActiveXObject" in window to detect IE11 explicitly.

To detect any IE (pre-Edge, "Trident") version, use "ActiveXObject" in window instead.

Solution 3

Use MSInputMethodContext as part of a feature detection check. For example:

//Appends true for IE11, false otherwise
window.location.hash = !!window.MSInputMethodContext && !!document.documentMode;

References

• MSInputMethodContext Object
• Input Method Editor API
• What I’d like to see in IE12: Internet Explorer 12 Wishlist of Bug Fixes and New Features
• TypeScript/lib.dom.d.ts at master · Microsoft/TypeScript IE DOM APIs

Solution 4

I've read your answers and made a mix. It seems to work with Windows XP(IE7/IE8) and Windows 7 (IE9/IE10/IE11).

function ie_ver(){  
    var iev=0;
    var ieold = (/MSIE (\d+\.\d+);/.test(navigator.userAgent));
    var trident = !!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident\/7.0/);
    var rv=navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rv:11.0");

    if (ieold) iev=new Number(RegExp.$1);
    if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 10") != -1) iev=10;
    if (trident&&rv!=-1) iev=11;

    return iev;         
}

Of course if I return 0, means no IE.

Solution 5

Get IE Version from the User-Agent

var ie = 0;
try { ie = navigator.userAgent.match( /(MSIE |Trident.*rv[ :])([0-9]+)/ )[ 2 ]; }
catch(e){}

How it works: The user-agent string for all IE versions includes a portion "MSIE space version" or "Trident other-text rv space-or-colon version". Knowing this, we grab the version number from a String.match() regular expression. A try-catch block is used to shorten the code, otherwise we'd need to test the array bounds for non-IE browsers.

Note: The user-agent can be spoofed or omitted, sometimes unintentionally if the user has set their browser to a "compatibility mode". Though this doesn't seem like much of an issue in practice.

---

Get IE Version without the User-Agent

var d = document, w = window;
var ie = ( !!w.MSInputMethodContext ? 11 : !d.all ? 99 : w.atob ? 10 : 
d.addEventListener ? 9 : d.querySelector ? 8 : w.XMLHttpRequest ? 7 : 
d.compatMode ? 6 : w.attachEvent ? 5 : 1 );

How it works: Each version of IE adds support for additional features not found in previous versions. So we can test for the features in a top-down manner. A ternary sequence is used here for brevity, though if-then and switch statements would work just as well. The variable ie is set to an integer 5-11, or 1 for older, or 99 for newer/non-IE. You can set it to 0 if you just want to test for IE 1-11 exactly.

Note: Object detection may break if your code is run on a page with third-party scripts that add polyfills for things like document.addEventListener. In such situations the user-agent is the best option.

---

Detect if the Browser is Modern

If you're only interested in whether or not a browser supports most HTML 5 and CSS 3 standards, you can reasonably assume that IE 8 and lower remain the primary problem apps. Testing for window.getComputedStyle will give you a fairly good mix of modern browsers, as well (IE 9, FF 4, Chrome 11, Safari 5, Opera 11.5). IE 9 greatly improves on standards support, but native CSS animation requires IE 10.

var isModernBrowser = ( !document.all || ( document.all && document.addEventListener ) ); 

View more solutions

Comments

[dave1010]

See also stackoverflow.com/questions/17447373/…

[Ludwig]

Or stackoverflow.com/questions/9514179/… for complete detection

[David G]

Anything based on user agent is flawed. It's too easy to spoof, Now, it may be that this is a not a problem, but it seems to me that a browser detection script should have a fair chance of detecting masquerading. I use a combination of conditional comments, fall-through to trying to coerce the document.documentMode and then look at window.MSInputMethodContext as per Paul Sweatte below. I'd post my code but it's flogging a dead horse.

[razor]

IE11 has user-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko Os types: 6.1 - win7, 6.3 - win81

[Royi Namir]

see my answer here stackoverflow.com/questions/21825157/…

[xorcus]

here's the best solution I've found: stackoverflow.com/a/20201867/2047385 if (Object.hasOwnProperty.call(window, "ActiveXObject") && !window.ActiveXObject) { // is IE11 }

[JoshYates1980]

another option: gist.github.com/CodeHeight/3ad11c1daf8907a53506b869a2251119.‌​js

[Izkata]

it's intentional to avoid mis-detection - Sadly, now that IE11 is released, we have code that is broken in only IE11, whereas a correct detection of IE would have worked...

[rg89]

I converted this solution to a Boolean if the version is less important function isIE() { return ((navigator.appName == 'Microsoft Internet Explorer') || ((navigator.appName == 'Netscape') && (new RegExp("Trident/.*rv:([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})").exec(navigator‌​.userAgent) != null))); }

[Mark Avenius]

@lzkata - Per the html5 spec here, IE is actually following the standard. So yes, it's intentional, but it is per the new standard (deprecating the old html api.)

[Avatar]

"the reason they did this was deliberate. They wanted to break browser detection scripts like this." from stackoverflow.com/a/18872067/1066234 ... Actually it should be: 'They wanted to make billion websites break like this.'

[Avatar]

This works for me: var isIE11 = !!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident\/7\./); source

[eivers88]

I used your answer in a solution I created for developing and emulating in IE11. Thought I'd share: github.com/eivers88/IE11-Missing-Conditional-Solution

[cartland]

Best not to use literals in new RegExp(). In this case "[\.0-9]" should be "[\\.0-9]". i.e. there's an unescaped backslash. Best to use the // form (as Echt does) instead. It doesn't require escaping backslash, and it's clearer to the parsers/linters it's meant to be a regexp rather than just a string.

[mcw]

Omu - which version of Chrome? Both lines return false for me with Chrome 35.0.1916.114 m

[User]

Wrong code because Acoo browser uses "MSIE" in the useragent. Look at useragentstring.com/pages/Acoo%20Browser

[Jan.]

@Omu just tested in chrome 35.0.1916.114 on linux and it returns ''false''

[Alex W]

Some versions of IE 11 actually do report MSIE, so watch out for false positives. Also, detecting Trident/ will definitely not be reliable once IE 12 comes out.

[David G]

This seems to me to be more robust. Certainly anything based on user agent is pretty useless.

[Krunal]

WRONG ARGUMENT. I have tested across all IE browsers, even Win8 devices as well.

[User]

You tested IE11 browser but not Acoo browser and Acoo browser uses "MSIE" in the useragent like i say'd you so the IEold also detects Acoo browser as IEold (The old version of IE) and i'm sure that Acoo browser uses "MSIE" in the useragent because i've did navigator.userAgent on a javascript test site with Acoo browser (Test site: w3schools.com)

[Krunal]

Can you please give a better solution for this?

[User]

U can use !navigator.userAgent.match("Acoo Browser;") && navigator.userAgent.match(/MSIE/i) ? true : false but that does not always work because acoo browser does not always have "Acoo Browser;" in its useragent but actually u don't need to care about that acoo browser has "MSIE" in its useragent because acoo browser is almost thesame.

[Farid Nouri Neshat]

Just tested it. Works perfectly. I think 'ActiveXObject' in window is good enough for detecting any IE version.

[Eadel]

Nice approach, but doesn't work if you select other than default User Agent String in Emulation tab of IE11, leaving document mode default (Edge).

[Alan]

This Microsoft article suggests this solution may no longer work msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/dn423948(v=vs.85).aspx

[mcw]

Actually, this article describes the reason why my method works. Attempting to access window.ActiveXObject, as described in the article, returns undefined in IE11 now (as well as non-Microsoft browsers.) The test using the javascript in operator returns true in all Microsoft browsers, so both are the case strictly in IE11. If Microsoft issues a change to the behavior of the in operator, yes, this method will break.

[Tarık Özgün Güner]

That's worked instead of ActiveXObject. Thanks a lot

[Chemical Programmer]

It also returns trun on IE 10 (Win 7)

[xorcus]

here's the best solution I've found: stackoverflow.com/a/20201867/2047385 if (Object.hasOwnProperty.call(window, "ActiveXObject") && !window.ActiveXObject) { // is IE11 }

[Paul Sweatte]

@tdakhla Updated to filter out IE Edge.

[Neo]

"ActiveXObject" in window returns False in Edge.

[omer]

the 'Get IE Version from the User-Agent' work nicely! just to be sure, this will show all version including IE11?

[Beejor]

@omer Yes, because it looks for the string "MSIE" or "Trident"; the latter is used by IE 11 and above. So it will work for all future IE versions until MS changes the name of its browser engine. I believe the new Edge browser still uses Trident.

[dragonore]

This works great for embeded PDF objects as well when Internet Explorer did their changes.

[Robin]

why !! symbol is used

[Jake Rowsell]

If you are using a regex to chec you can add the i flag to make it case insensitive, rather than .toLowerCase(). There is also no need for the .toString() method.

[Vivian River]

Using IE 11, I noticed that any variable named isIE will always be false, even when it has been set to true. They thought of everything!

[mastazi]

@Neo Edge is not IE, the OP's question was how to detect IE11

[Neo]

@mastazi yea but in this answer, it is mentioned that ActiveXObject can be used to detect any IE version. It is though debatable that should Edge be called a version of IE or not (Microsoft surely does not want to call it one), but for many of the developers IE has become the synonym for any default Microsoft browser.

[AlbatrossCafe]

My favorite - accounts for IE6-10 and IE11. I added in a check for edge as well

[Jon Davis]

This answer should be removed. This was working but lately it has been literally crashing IE for many users who are updating IE11.

[mcw]

@stimpy77 - just tested in 11.420.10586.0 and Edge 25.10586.0.0. Not seeing a crash - can you be more specific?

[Jon Davis]

It may be environmental ("works on MY machine"), but no browser API behavior should be environmentally distinct. window.ActiveXObject is an unsafe API to begin with so this is unsurprising.

[j4v1]

Where can I find the new standard global objects added to new versions of Edge? I infer Math.acosh is one of those.

[James Peter]

@j4v1 Math.acosh Only is Supported in Microsoft Edge (Edge browser). Ref: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/en-en/library/dn858239(v=vs.94).asp‌​x

[Shaun]

Important to note for any of these answers that might seem like they're not working is to check the Emulation settings, I was going to mark this answer as incorrect but then I checked emulation and saw that some intranet compatibility settings were overriding the display mode, once that was taken out of the equation this solution worked fine for me.

[BernardV]

This works great, thanks @Beejor! I implemented a simple redirect to another page using your answer: var ie = 0; try { ie = navigator.userAgent.match( /(MSIE |Trident.*rv[ :])([0-9]+)/ )[ 2 ]; } catch(e){} if (ie !== 0) { location.href = "../ie-redirect/redirect.html"; }

[Beejor]

@BernardV Looks good! A quick tip: if you have access to the server, detecting the user-agent in a script there may work better, since the user wouldn't notice any redirect/flicker, less HTTP requests, etc. But in a pinch doing it with JS works too.

[ruffin]

var isIE11 = navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Trident/7") > -1 seems most Occam-y. @Robin: What !! means, aka, "Kai could've left !! out."

[danjah]

Just confirmed #false in non-IE, IE8,9,10, Edge 14,15. #true in IE11 only. Did not test with document mode active. Tested with Browserstack.

[Thijs]

This method stoped working for me. In the past it correctly detected IE11 but now that I have Internet Explorer version 11.1198.14393.0 (Update version 11.0.42 (KB4018271)) running on Windows 10 Enterprise (version 1607, OS Build 14393.1198) Math seems to support the acosh method.

[James Peter]

@Thijs In Windows 10 Education with IE11 v 11.1198.14393.0 I tested successfully. You should try another math function according to ES6.

[Thijs]

@JamesPeter I've landed upon checking for document.documentMode. This seems to be a more reliable property to check for IE11 or Edge. documentMode exists in IE11 but no longer exists in Edge.

[James Peter]

Yes, documentMode exists since IE8-10, and document.compatMode exists since it exists since IE5- *. However the latter is disapproved from IE8 but is still used. Thanks for sharing.

[Matthias Hryniszak]

I might be blind but the following regular expressions are just wrong: "MSIE ([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})" "Trident/.*rv:([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})" in both cases when there is a check for zero or more dot or number then since this is a double-quoted string they should read: "MSIE ([0-9]{1,}[.0-9]{0,})" "Trident/.*rv:([0-9]{1,}[.0-9]{0,})" Just came across this after turning the no-useless-escape ESLint rule. So it worked just because in character class matcher dot is a dot (not just any character) and a \. is also a dot. So maybe not wrong but that escaping for dot is not necessary

[KSPR]

This detects Firefox as This is IE 0

[jackhowa]

This is working for me. Have a basic helper const isIE11 = () => !!window.MSInputMethodContext && !!document.documentMode;