Run IE11 in IE9 browser mode from shortcut

Question

We have an asp.net app that uses Devexpress. Unfortunately the version of Devexpress we have doesn't support IE 11 and we need to upgrade.

However, we are close to replacing the app with a new rewritten app that does not use Devexpress. So upgrading devexpress will be a huge waste for us.

Is there a way that we can have a shortcut to our app on the desktop and have that shortcut tell IE11 to run in IE9 browser mode??

I know I might be asking something kinda stupid, but it doesn't exactly need to work like that. We just need a way to get IE11 to run in Browser mode IE9 whenever it runs our app. There must be away... even if we need to do some registry changes... any options would be helpful at this point.

Thanks Nick

Solution

May be following is a solution / workaround to your problem.

1.Add following line of code to the master page of your application

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9">

This will open the page in IE 9 mode. You can check it by opening F12 developer tools and switching to Emulation tab

Note: This will only change the Document mode and not User agent string.

2.Now if you want to navigate to your application through a shortcut on desktop then there are two ways to do this

(a) Simple Way:
i. Set your application home page/start page as your IE home page (Internet Options-->Home Page)
ii. Create a copy of the existing IE shortcut
iii. Rename the shortcut as your application name and change the icon

(b) Better Way: Problem with the first approach is whenever you open IE it will open your application start page as it is set to home page of IE.

So, create a small BAT file to do this.
i. Open Notepad
ii. Type following

start iexplore http://suvendugiri.wordpress.com

Note: Please replace the website name with your application start URL
iii. Save this file as YourApp.bat
iv. Right click on this file and go to "Send To"--> "Desktop(create shortcut)"

In case I am missing something please let me know.