How to disable Compatibility View in IE

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6348959

Question

I am wondering how do you stop people who are using IE 8 from going to Compatibility mode?

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />

I found this tag and I think this forces people to stay in IE-8 mode but I am not too sure and can't check as I have IE 9.

If people are in IE 9 mode I force them to not go into IE 8 or IE 7 Compatibility mode?

I tried to put the above line in my code and went to IE 9 -> Tools -> Compatibility View(Grayed Out)

but "Compatibility View Settings" was not grayed out and it seems you could add the site through there.

So should that not disable?

Was it helpful?

Solution 

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />

should force your page to render in IE8 standards. The user may add the site to compatibility list but this tag will take precedence.

A quick way to check would be to load the page and type the following the address bar : 

javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

If you see IE7 in the string, it is loading in compatibility mode, otherwise not.

OTHER TIPS

All you need is to force disable C.M. in IE - Just paste This code (in IE9 and under c.m. will be disabled):

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9; IE=8; IE=7; IE=EDGE" />

Source: http://twigstechtips.blogspot.com/2010/03/css-ie8-meta-tag-to-disable.html

This should be enough to force an IE user to drop compatibility mode in any IE version:

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

However, there are a couple of caveats one should be aware of:

  • The meta tag above should be included as the very first tag under <head>. Only the <title> tag may be placed above it.

If you don't do that, you'll get an error on IE9 Dev Tools: X-UA-Compatible META tag ignored because document mode is already finalized.

  • If you want this markup to validate, make sure you remember to close the meta tag with a /> instead of just >.

  • Starting with IE11, edge mode is the preferred document mode. To support/enable that, use the HTML5 document type declaration <!doctype html>.

  • If you need to support webfonts on IE7, make sure you use <!DOCTYPE html>. I've tested it and found that rendering webfonts on IE7 got pretty unreliable when using <!doctype html>.

The use of Google Chrome Frame is popular, but unfortunately it's going to be dropped sometime this month, Jan. 2014.

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EDGE,chrome=1">

Extensive related info here. The tip on using it as the first meta tag is on a previously mentioned source here, which has been updated.

If you're using ASP.NET MVC, I found Response.AddHeader("X-UA-Compatible", "IE=edge,chrome=1") in a code block in _Layout to work quite well:

@Code
    Response.AddHeader("X-UA-Compatible", "IE=edge,chrome=1")
End Code
<!DOCTYPE html>
everything else

The answer given by FelixFett worked for me. To reiterate:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=11; IE=10; IE=9; IE=8; IE=7; IE=EDGE" />

I have it as the first 'meta' tag in my code. I added 10 and 11 as those are versions that are published now for Internet Explorer.

I would've just commented on his answer but I do not have a high enough reputation...

Another way to achieve this in Apache is by putting the following lines in .htaccess in the root folder of your website (or in Apache's config files).

BrowserMatch "MSIE" isIE
BrowserMatch "Trident" isIE
Header set X-UA-Compatible "IE=edge" env=isIE

This requires that you have the mod_headers and mod_setenvif modules enabled.

The extra HTTP header only gets sent to IE browsers, and none of the others.

In JSF I used:

<h:head>
    <f:facet name="first">
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EDGE" />
    </f:facet>

    <!-- ... other meta tags ... -->

</h:head>

Adding a tag to your page will not control the UI in the Internet Control Panel (the dialog that appears when you selection Tools -> Options). If you're looking at your homepage which could be google.com, msn.com, about:blank or example.com, the Internet Control Panel has no way of knowing what the contents of your page may be, and it will not download it in the background.

Have a look at this document on MSDN which discussed compatibility mode and how to turn it off for your site.

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