What is X-UA-Compatible?

X-UA-Compatible - a meta tag used in web development to specify the version of Internet Explorer (IE) that should be used by a website. This tag helps developers to ensure their websites display properly on various versions of IE.

The X-UA-Compatible tag was first introduced in Internet Explorer 8 as an answer to compatibility issues caused by different versions of IE. By adding this tag, developers could force IE to render the website using a specific version instead of relying on the user's default settings.

To use this feature, web developers must add the <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content=""> element to their HTML code. The parameter specifies which version of IE should be used for rendering the page.

Why Use X-UA-Compatible?

The main reason for using the X-UA-Compatible meta tag is to ensure your website looks and functions as intended across all versions of Internet Explorer. As we know, different versions of browsers can interpret HTML and CSS differently, resulting in visual or functional discrepancies between them. Adding this meta tag avoids such issues when designing for multiple browser types.

In addition, some new features may not work well with older versions of IE, but they may perform perfectly well with newer iterations. In such cases, one can use X-UA-Compatible tag along with modern browser codes where it will improve performance while maintaining backward compatibility aspects.

This is why most modern websites continue to include an <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible">, even though Microsoft has moved away from developing its proprietary browser engine following EdgeHTML in favour of Chromium-based engines like Blink:

How to Use X-UA-Compatible?

Using the X-UA-Compatible meta tag is simple. You only need to add the following code snippet on your HTML file's head section:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="">

If you want Internet Explorer 11 mode, simply use this code:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge">

This forces IE11 to render the website in Edge mode.

The X-UA-Compatible meta tag is a powerful and useful tool for web developers who want their websites to look and function correctly across different versions of Internet Explorer. By using it, they can ensure that their sites are backward compatible with older browsers while also taking advantage of new features available in newer iterations.