Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluator

My name is Tariq Sharif and I am a program manager in the IE security and networking team. I joined IE team shortly after Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released. Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduced many new security features for Internet Explorer, which can cause compatibility issues for some web applications and sites. In order to help solve such issues I am pleased to announce that the Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluator (IECE) is now available. IECE is released as part of Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.0 and can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx.

IECE is designed to help IT professionals evaluate changes in behavior of web applications and web sites caused by the new security features in Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and test for compatibility when moving from Windows XP to Windows XP Service Pack 2. It does this by:

  • Identifying issues and blocks to web site functionality
  • Identifying the cause of a block and specific details to identify the location of the problem

After installing Windows XP with SP2 and IECE, you can begin testing web sites and web applications. When a security feature blocks an action, new information will be entered in the test log including details such as:

  • A time stamp
  • The URL where the block occurred
  • The security feature involved
  • The URL zone
  • A link to information on how to fix this error
  • Automatic mitigation (if available)