Internet Explorer 10 Parent topic

Internet Explorer (IE) 10 is the default browser in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Internet Explorer 10 comes in two different versions: one for the Windows UI and one for the desktop mode.
Internet Explorer 10 for the Windows UI provides a plug-in free browsing experience. Plug-in programs for web browsing previously followed no set standards and consequently, the quality of the code employed by these plug-in programs is variable. Plug-ins also require the use of more system resources and increase the risk of malware infection.
Microsoft has developed Internet Explorer 10 for the Windows UI to follow new standards-based technologies to replace the previously used plug-in solutions. The following table lists the technologies that Internet Explorer 10 uses instead of older plug-in technology.

Comparison of Standards-based Technologies to Plug-in Programs

Capability
World Wide Web (W3C) Standard Technology
Example Plug-in Equivalents
Video and audio
HTML5 video and audio
  • Flash
  • Apple QuickTime
  • Silverlight
Graphics
  • HTML5 canvas
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
  • Cascading Style Sheets, Level 3 (CSS3) Transitions and Animations
  • CSS Transforms
  • Flash
  • Apple QuickTime
  • Silverlight
  • Java applets
Offline storage
  • Web storage
  • File API
  • IndexedDB
  • Application cache API
  • Flash
  • Java applets
  • Google Gears
Network communication, resource sharing, file uploading
  • HTML Web Messaging
  • Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS)
  • Flash
  • Java applets
Microsoft has also developed a plug-in compatible Internet Explorer 10 version solely for the desktop mode. If users in Windows UI mode encounter a website that requires the use of additional plug-in programs, a notification displays in Internet Explorer 10 prompting users to switch to desktop mode. Once in desktop mode, users can view websites requiring the use or installation of third-party plug-in programs.
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