IE6: Everything You Need to Know

By On March 19, 2011 · Leave a Comment  

(Updated 10/5/2011)

This article is a one stop guide for finding all solutions dealing with IE6.

Table of Contents

 

Articles on IE6 Bugs, Problems and Solutions

Compatibility References

Update Notification

Digg.com asked their IE6 users why they’re still using IE6. Digg concluded that a notification to update is pointless and sadistic. Check out the poll results from their survey: http://about.digg.com/blog/much-ado-about-ie6

Serving an Alternate Version for IE6

Bug Fix Files (CSS/JavaScript)

Please note that the following excludes CSS frameworks for grids and layouts. There are too many and that list is better suited for another post.

  • CSS3 Support
    • PIE makes Internet Explorer 6-8 capable of rendering some CSS3 features. Specifically, it’s a behavior file that you can attach to an element via css that will enable that element to support border-radius, box-shadow, border-image, multiple background images, and linear-gradient as background image.
    • IE-CSS3 – A script that provides support for some CSS3 for Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8.
    • CSS3 in Internet Explorer – Denoted by the author as an improved version of the IE-CSS3 script (the previous item).
    • Selectors
      • selectivizr – A JavaScript utility that emulates CSS3 pseudo-classes and attribute selectors in Internet Explorer 6-8.
      • YUI 2: Selector Utility
      • Sizzle – Allows CSS3 selectors to be used in all browsers, even in IE6.
    • Css Extenders – Enables CSS that replaces vendor specific CSS3 style rules so that only one rule needs to be written for all platforms.
    • Limited CSS3 Support
  • HTML5 Support
    • Modernizr – Detects HTML5 and CSS3 features and if they’re unsupported, allows you provide fall-back CSS style rules.
    • IE Print Protector – Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 do not recognize new HTML5 elements, this JavaScript allows you to print HTML5 pages in them.
    • GWorker enables HTML 5 web workers (background JavaScript) to be compatible with IE6 and other incompatible browsers.
    • Socket.io provides support for WebSockets in IE6 enabling realtime apps with push features.
    • Respond.js enables link tag media queries (e.g. ) in IE6 and other browsers that don’t support it.
    • css3-mediaqueries-js – Write your media queries like you would normally.
    • HTML 5 innerShiv – HTML 5 elements cannot be appended to the document when created using innerHTML, which causes problems when trying to add HTML5 elements using libraries such as jQuery. This script is a workaround.
    • html5shim - Enables IE to recognize HTML5 elements so that they will render and can be targeted by CSS selectors.
    • ExplorerCanvas – Enables canvas support in IE.
  • Rounded Corners
    • DD_roundies – A Javascript library that makes creation of rounded-corner HTML boxes easier, with a focus on Internet Explorer.
    • curved-corner – This is a behavior (.htc) file for Internet explorer to make CSS property ” border-radius ” work.
  • PNG fix
    • Unit PNG Fix – Fixes problems caused by using an IE filter to fix a PNG, such as AlphaImageLoader sometimes prevents interaction with links and forms, etc.
    • DD_belatedPNG – This uses Microsoft’s implementation of VML instead of Microsoft’s AlphaImageLoader filter.
    • IE PNG Fix 2.0 Alpha 4
    • SuperSleight
  • Code Generator Tools
  • Others
    • IE7 (the script) Named such to connotate a fix to IE6, including the PNG issue and others as well, thus making it behave like IE7.

Testing Environments

A comment from Steve to Microsoft on their prohibiting the use of Spoon:

“[Spoon] was **THE** most useful resource for testing multiple versions of IE and the shutdown really ticked developers off! As a long time web developer of Enterprise Web Applications I’ve tried all the options out there to try and simplify testing IE and the lack of realistic options is a royal PITA.

1.) Multiple IEs – IE8 breaks the functionality of IE6′s textboxes – thus its a NO-GO
2.) IETester – works great until you need to test popup interaction and then it fails – thus a NO-GO
3.) Virtual PC with timebombed images of IE6, IE7, IE8 – works ok, but the 12Gigs of HD space needed is frustrating when each full image of Windows dies 4 times a year, running a full Windows image is slow and you have to beg for updates because the releases are not co-ordinated and announced well at all – thus its a NO-GO
4.) IE Super Preview – Last I checked this did not allow full testing of IE user interaction, JavaScript DOM changes, popups etc. – thus its a NO-GO
5.) Multiple PC’s to run multiple versions of windows and IE. With all the hardware, software, and physical space needed – its a NO-GO
6.) Spoon.net IEs – They work, they work just like local native apps once running, and there’s no hacking of my real local IE install. – the **ONLY** problem with these IE’s is that Microsoft shut them down

Please understand that we (developers) just want something that works. Testing in multiple versions of IE is a pain to begin with and with IE9 on the horizon it is only getting worse. I’m not sure where the issue stands with Spoon, but I would really like a solution worked out fast.”
–Steve (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/02/04/testing-multiple-versions-of-ie-on-one-pc.aspx)

Virtualization

Screenshots

Debugging

Degradation (i.e. faking bugs)

Misc IE6 Info

  • Google Chrome Frame for IE – An IE plug-in that embeds Chrome inside IE, developers then use a doctype to load the page in the Chrome frame instead of IE in browsers that have the plug-in installed.
  • YUI Library announced in November 2010 that it will discontinue grade A browser support for IE6 – support will drop to a C. Read more here.
  • iecss.com – Provides the default browser style sheets for IE6-9.
  • Wikipedia on Internet Explorer 6 – A good overview of IE6.
  • How to Charge for IE6 Work - 5 minute podcast from the show “From the Couch”.

IE6 Global Marketshare Stats as of February 2011

Stats Source IE6 Marketshare
statcounter.com IE6 Global Stats as of Feb 2011 Worldwide: 4.6% (was 4.93%*),
Africa: 11.43% (was 12.44%*),
Asia: 11.25% (was 10.53%*),
Europe: 1.97% (was 2.15%*),
North America: 2.16% (was 2.37%*),
Oceania: 2.23% (was 2.26%*),
South America: 3.31% (was 3.6%*)
Net Applications.com Browser Version Market Share as of Feb 2011 11.33% (was 11.43%*)
w3schools.com Internet Explorer Version Statistics as of Feb 2011 3.5% (was 3.8%*)
w3counter.com Web Browser Market Share as of Feb 2011 3.59% (was 3.91%*)
statowl.com Web Browser Usage Statistics as of Feb 2011 6.58% (was 7.04%*)
getclicky.com Internet explorer (Global marketshare) as of Mar 17, 2011 3.5%

*As of January 2011

Articles On Usage Statistics of IE6

Articles Deprecating the use of IE6

Misc. Articles on IE6

Sites Deprecating IE6

No related posts.

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