Legacy and historic user agents
Internet Explorer 5 through 11, Presto-era Opera, Netscape, NCSA Mosaic and text-mode browsers.
42 user agents
0 matching user agents ·
| User agent string | Browser | Platform | Device | Actions |
|---|
Internet Explorer's shifting format
IE changed its string format three times, and the last change is the one that still catches people out. IE 11 removed the MSIE token entirely — deliberately, so that sites sniffing for MSIE would stop serving it degraded content.
IE 8: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0)
IE 10: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; Trident/6.0)
IE 11: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like GeckoDetecting IE 11 requires matching Trident/7.0 or rv:11.0. Any rule looking for MSIE misses it completely — which is exactly the outcome Microsoft intended.
The Trident version ladder
| Trident | Internet Explorer | Released |
|---|---|---|
Trident/7.0 | IE 11 | 2013 |
Trident/6.0 | IE 10 | 2012 |
Trident/5.0 | IE 9 | 2011 |
Trident/4.0 | IE 8 | 2009 |
Opera before Chromium
Until version 15, Opera used its own Presto engine and an unusual format that put the version at the end rather than the start:
Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) Presto/2.12.388 Version/12.18The leading Opera/9.80 was frozen for years and says nothing about the real version — the actual release is the Version/12.18 at the end. Parsers that read the first number report every late Presto Opera as 9.80.
Why any of this still matters
Legacy strings turn up in three places: archived log analysis, kiosk and industrial systems that never got replaced, and parser test fixtures. If you maintain a user agent parser, these are the cases that expose bad assumptions — a version at the end of the string, a missing product token, a Mozilla/4.0 prefix.
Frequently asked questions
How do I detect Internet Explorer 11?
Match Trident/7.0 or rv:11.0. IE 11 removed the MSIE token, so any rule built around MSIE will not see it. In JavaScript, !!window.MSInputMethodContext && !!document.documentMode is a reliable feature-based alternative.
Why does old Opera say 9.80?
Opera froze the leading Opera/9.80 token and moved the real version to a Version/ token at the end of the string. It was done for compatibility with sites that had hard-coded checks against the leading number, and it means a correct parser has to read the last token rather than the first.
Do people still use these browsers?
Not in meaningful numbers on the public web, but they persist in industrial control systems, medical equipment, ATMs and kiosk deployments where the software was certified against a specific browser and never revalidated. If your audience includes enterprise or government users, IE 11 traffic has not necessarily reached zero.
Other categories
Desktop & Laptop
Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and Opera on Windows, macOS, Linux and Chrome OS.
8,989 user agentsMobile Phones
Android and iOS phones from Samsung, Apple, Google, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and more.
15,434 user agentsTablets
iPad, Galaxy Tab, Fire tablets, Lenovo Tab and Windows 2-in-1 devices.
2,680 user agentsSmart TVs & Streaming
Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Android TV, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and Chromecast.
86 user agentsGame Consoles
PlayStation 5 and 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.
20 user agentsWearables & XR
Apple Watch, Wear OS smartwatches, Meta Quest, PICO and Apple Vision Pro.
13 user agents