Martha White
Microsoft Developer Network
December 1995
Editor's Note: Please note that since the publication of this article, Microsoft has released a new version of Internet Explorer (version 3.0) for the Windows® 95 and Windows NT® operating systems. This article, however, is still relevant for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh® users, because the current version of Internet Explorer available on those systems is version 2.0. For information on Internet Explorer availability or to download a copy of Internet Explorer 3.0, see the Internet Explorer home page.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 2.0 is an Internet browser designed for use with the English version of Microsoft Windows 95. Version 2.0 takes advantage of the Windows 95 environment and extends the capabilities of Internet Explorer 1.0. It is a full 32-bit multitasking application with new user enhancements, improved performance, and support for Internet standards, including W3C Standard HTML (hypertext markup language) and its extensions.
Internet Explorer 2.0 uses the Windows 95 desktop to enhance the user interface and to add features such as the ability to drag and drop URL links to the desktop. Other enhancements include viewing HTML directly, support for e-mailing favorite sites, new context menus, and hotkeys to favorite Web pages.
Version 2.0 supports the following W3C Standard HTML specification tags with some extensions:
Internet Explorer ships as part of the Internet Jumpstart Kit, a set of utilities and extensions to Windows 95 to make it convenient and easy for customers to configure Windows 95 for the Internet. The Internet Jumpstart Kit is available in the Microsoft Plus! pack or can be downloaded from The Microsoft Network (MSN), ftp.microsoft.com, Microsoft's Web site (http:\\www.microsoft.com), or other online services.It is also available on pre-installed personal computers with Windows 95.
Choose a topic below for more information about Internet Explorer 2.0:
For detailed information on the HTML tags and extensions supported by the new Internet Explorer, see the Internet Explorer 2.0 HTML Reference on the Internet Explorer Web site. This document provides an alphabetical listing of HTML tags supported by the Internet Explorer, including a description and example of each tag, and a support column that describes the specification or source of the feature (for example, HTML 2.0 specification, the updated W3C Standard HTML specification, Netscape enhancement, or Internet Explorer or Spyglass enhancement).
Internet Explorer's setup Wizard configures your computer to connect to the service provider of your choice automatically. If you do not currently have a service provider, Internet Explorer helps you sign up for the Microsoft Network, which provides Internet access as well as other services.
Internet Explorer is fully integrated with Windows 95 to make it easy to browse the Internet. Features include:
Favorites: Keeps track of the sites you've recently visited and allows you to return to your favorite places on the Internet easily.
Tutorial and Search button: Allows you to use Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word as a Web browser to view the documents you've created or to access other documents on the Web. You cannot modify a document in Web Browse view. A search button on the toolbar provides instant access to powerful search engines such as Yahoo, Lycos, and Infoseek.
HTML source view: Allows you to see the HTML tags underlying your document. If you wish, you can edit the HTML directly using the editor of your choice.
Other new features:
"Send Shortcut" command. Allows you to mail a shortcut of a favorite site directly from Internet Explorer.
New context menus. The "Open and Save As" menu commands allows you to download and save a file directly by right-clicking on the link and then downloading.
Download status indicator. When you minimize Internet Explorer during a download, the icon changes to a status indicator to show the progress of the download.
Drag/drop shortcuts. You can create a shortcut by dragging and dropping a current page or a hyper-link onto the desktop.
Hotkeys to favorites. You can now associate a hotkey combination with your favorite sites.
Internet Explorer implements a number of solutions both to speed up the display of Web pages and to allow multiple activities to occur simultaneously:
Multithreading. The user interface is multithreaded, so users can scroll the client window while a page is downloading.
Multiple connections. As pages are downloaded, multiple connections to the server are used to increase responsiveness.
Progressively rendered graphics. Text is displayed immediately with placeholders for graphics. The graphics are progressively rendered, which allows you to begin reading the content of a page immediately without waiting for all graphics to download.
Text placeholders for graphics. If the author has used ALT tags and window sizes, the tags are displayed while the graphic is being downloaded. You can choose to move on or wait for the graphic.
Persistent page cache. Internet Explorer uses a persistent page cache to make the user interface more responsive. You have the option of setting the cache to occur between sessions, allowing users to work with WWW content offline.
HTTP Keep Alive support. Internet Explorer supports HTTP Keep Alive, which is a protocol enhancement to the HTTP protocol supported by some Web servers. HTTP Keep Alive allows Internet Explorer to maintain an open connection to the Web server for multiple downloads.
Scrolling text marquee: The MARQUEE tag allows a designer to specify a section of text to appear as a moving marquee on a page. Like images, marquees can be left-aligned, right-aligned, or centered, and include a variety of attributes.
Inline video: Web pages can be constructed to play video immediately after they are accessed, or in response to user input. This is a simple extension to HTML that allows an AVI format video file to be played as part of the page.
Background sounds : The BGSOUND tag allows you to create pages with background sounds or "soundtracks." Background sounds can be recorded in any of the popular formats available on the Internet, including WAV, MIDI, AU, and AIFF. Sounds can be set to overlap or to repeat.
Enhanced table support. Internet Explorer extends the TABLE tag, allowing you to set the background color, font face, and color of each table cell. To view a table with background colors and to learn more about table color, see the Table Cell Colors sample page created by Robert Hess. If you're trying to find an RGB value for the BGCOLOR attibute, take a look at Robert's 256-color RGB triplet table. Robert also has a page containing sample source code for generating your own HTML RGB table: RGB color table.
Bitmap Formats. Internet Explorer displays JPEG, GIF, XBM, and BMP graphical formats.
New HTML Tags and Extensions. Internet Explorer 2.0 fully supports W3C Standard HTML tags and adds some extensions as well.
NNTP News. Internet Explorer 2.0 provides support for reading USENET news using the NNTP protocol.
Spyglass SDI APIs. These APIs are implemented using dynamic data exchange (DDE) to extend the capabilities of the browser. Some typical uses might include creating an external "browser friendly" search tool or viewer. The service name for Internet Explorer is "IEXPLORER". All of the Spyglass/NCSA topics are supported.
© 1996 Microsoft Corporation