What happens if I add a website in compatibility list in IE

Question

I have a website and currently works only in IE if I add the URL in compatibility list.

IE compatibility list image

But as IE is about to phase out I want to switch to Microsoft Edge. But in edge there is nothing like adding in compatibility list. I have tried IE mode in edge but still it does work.

Note If I add URL in compatibility list in IE, the website works fine both in IE and edge. So wanted to understand what happens in backend on adding URL in compatibility list.

Answer 1

While you add the site in a compatibility mode list, the IE browser will display the site in the best suitable IE mode.

When a standards-based webpage is displayed in Compatibility View, the following changes occur:

• Pages are displayed in a mode determined to be appropriate for the site, generally IE7 mode.

• In the user-agent string, the browser identifies itself according to the document mode used to display the site. For example, if the site is displayed in IE7 mode, then the user-agent string contains MSIE 7.0 instead of MSIE 9.0.

• Conditional comments and version vectors recognize the browser as a browser corresponding to the selected document mode. For example, if the site is displayed in IE7 mode, the version vector will be reported as Internet Explorer 7, rather than IE9 mode.

Reference: Understanding Compatibility View

In the MS Edge browser, you could configure the Enterprise mode.

You could use Enterprise Mode Site List Manager to create an Enterprise Mode Site List.

Make sure to select/ add the Compat mode(IE mode) in which the site displays properly while you create the site list.

You need to enable Configure the Enterprise Mode Site List Group policy and set the address of the Enterprise Mode site list.

After that, you could try to access the site in the IE mode in the MS Edge browser.

Let me know if you have questions.