8 ms·
IE11 on Windows 8.1 - Google Search loads in legacy mode
- devx 13y agoThis seems to solve it: IE11 -> Tools -> Compatibility View Settings. Remove check on "Use Microsoft Compatibility lists".
- gbin 13y agobut what is this setting ? it doesn't look like an UA switcher.
- randomfool 13y agoCompatibility view essentially switches the entire rendering stack & user agent. It even looks like the older version when inspecting many JS functions and such. I'd expect google.com to be fully standards compliant, but for some reason I believe IE was forcing itself back to IE8 mode for it. Never understood why. Even in IE8 mode though, this should have worked fine- so could be something worse (identify as IE8, execute as IE11?).
- randomfool 13y agoFor a site like Google, I see no reason why Microsoft should have put it into compatibility mode- I have to assume that Google does testing on IE and any bugs should have been addressed quickly by Google. Furthermore, by using compat mode, the only way for google.com to use newer features in IE is to ask Microsoft to take it off the compat list then push an update to all IE browsers. In general, this compat list should die and sites should be targeting standards-compliant behavior. If they identify as standards compliant and are not, bugs should happen.
- reybango 13y ago"For a site like Google, I see no reason why Microsoft should have put it into compatibility mode- I have to assume that Google does testing on IE and any bugs should have been addressed quickly by Google." Unfortunately, we see otherwise during our compat testing here at Microsoft on many occasions.
- kumarm 13y agoI guess you have no way to work with a major company like Google since you are such a small organization lacking resources.
- reybango 13y agoYou're making an assumption that Microsoft are the blocker. Let's just say that it's a two-way street when it comes to communication.
- 3825 13y agoSorry, I try to err on the side of caution as well but there is no way to do that in this case. Microsoft is clearly at fault. Adding someone to a "compatibility list" is a unilateral action Microsoft took. If it works fine without being on compatibility mode, don't add it to your compatibility mode list.
- reybango 13y agoIf it had worked fine, it would never have been added in the first place. We don't add sites arbitrarily to the list. It's based on actual compat testing. Also every site on the list can request to be removed so if Google had tested in IE11 and discovered all was great, it's very easy for them to contact us to remove them from the list.
- joshstrange 13y agoWhat about the quote from the article: > I'll tell you more guys. I've updated to windows 8.1 on my tablet a month ago through MSND subscription and Google search worked just fine. Looks like this problem appeared after public availability of Windows 8.1. So I believe it's something that Google or Microsoft should figure out. How could they have tested as they were not on the list until, what appears to be, the public release?
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- AaronFriel 13y agoI'm trying to figure out what the problem is, and I can't see how the compatibility list would force Google into such a legacy mode: <domain docMode="EmulateIE10" versionVector="10" uaString="10" featureSwitch="overrideXUACompatible:false">google.com</domain> It seems to read as: render and present as IE10, and if there is a `<meta` tag specifying x-ua-compatibility, don't ignore it. There's another section that overrides the backwards/forwards cache setting for google.com: <BFCache> ... <domain exclude="true">google.com</domain> But I've no clue how that would affect rendering so much. I've disabled both settings (commented out) and will report back if commenting them out fixes Google.
- mbell 13y agoIf I were to guess: Google is detecting the user agent string and attempting to use features that should be supported. e.g. google's code is trying to use some IE11 feature that IE10 didn't support. The compat settings are making this fail which seems to cause google's code to drop to it's lowest compatibility mode (IE 6?) as some sort of 'compatibility panic'.
- cbr 13y agoI think the problem is that EmulateIE10 is slightly broken: it sends "MSIE 10" but also "Trident/7.0". Real IE10 has Trident 6.0. This looks like it's screwing up the UA regexes.
- kevinxucs 13y agoWow, I am soooooooooooo surprised.
- anuragramdasan 13y agoProbably because of the new release of their layout engine. IE11 comes with trident 7 while all the previous versions use 6 or below. It might be causing the trouble with google. Probably that's why Google works well in compatibility view.
- randomfool 13y agoBut the bug is that Google is broken in compatibility view and works properly when in standards view.
- anuragramdasan 13y agoOh crap. I read it the other way. My bad. It was only a guess on my part, havent used IE ever.
- mischanix 13y ago"Hey, if we make Google uglier, maybe people will use Bing!" "Probably not, but let's mess with 'em anyway."
- rschmitty 13y agoUnless it was google.. "Hey, if we make Google uglier, maybe people will use Chrome!" "Probably, they are used to IE not working" Not sure who had the slip-up, but evil works both ways :P
- Yver 13y ago> IE11 -> Tools -> Compatibility View Settings. > Remove check on "Use Microsoft Compatibility lists". That's the solution posted in that thread. It's an IE problem.
- sp332 13y agoTweaking Firefox to send the same user-agent string "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; Trident/7.0)" causes the exact same problem. It's a Google problem. ETA: In standards mode, IE sends "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko".
- sounds 13y agoFirefox sending "MSIE 10.0" maybe, but not "MSIE 11.0"
- Tobani 13y agoIt looks like the preview releases of IE11 work fine. MS Changed a default value between preview and release versions. I'm going to choose to apply Hanlon's Razor in this situation. -How often do people who have to do something to detect chrome/firefox version? Unless you are doing something with bleeding-edge experimental APIs probably, never. -How often do people have to do something for a specific version of IE? All the time. Chrome & Firefox have been mostly compatible for the past 20 major versions. IE has yet to make two consecutive versions compatible with each other. Also worth noting: Firefox and Chrome support more versions of Windows than Microsoft's past 3 Browser releases have. Again I don't this is necessarily a distinct case of anybody trying to be evil. This is just a symptom of a bigger problem.
- josteink 13y agoInteresting quote: I'll tell you more guys. I've updated to windows 8.1 on my tablet a month ago through MSND subscription and Google search worked just fine. Looks like this problem appeared after public availability of Windows 8.1. So I believe it's something that Google or Microsoft should figure out. Not saying this is malicious. Maybe just Google is doing something silly. Maybe Microsoft have slipped up on their compatibility-list-thingie (which is a horrible invention IMO). Sometimes adding too many special cases in your code instead of having one "good enough" version for everyone will cause you a million problems you never saw coming. I've had more bugs come from special casing than any general, "run everywhere" code I've written. I can easily see how both ends could be responsible for this problem, even at the same time.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- enscr 13y agoSo nobody @ MSFT has access to Google.com before shipping off the product. Given that a typical engineer is so addicted to 'googling' all through the day, this would've been noticed.
- AaronFriel 13y ago(Strike this, see note below) This problem just started in the last 24 hours - Google rendered fine and was my default search engine for over a month running the 8.1 RTM, and for a few months before that running the 8.1 Preview. This isn't MSFT's fuck up unless Google is doing feature detection and IE11 is presenting itself as not supporting some trivial HTML5 feature. Edit: I stand corrected - it looks like something MSFT pushed out as a compatibility list update around the general availability of 8.1 is causing this.
- AaronFriel 13y agoEdit2: I'm not convinced of the above anymore. It doesn't look like the IE compat list is abnormal, but it could be a fluke interaction between Google and IE11. On the other hand, it's very strange that it suddenly occurred in the past day, when I've been running 8.1 release for over a month.
- reybango 13y agoIt's also possible that Google made a change to their SERPs that didn't go nicely with the docmode IE11 is rendering it in.
- temo4ka 13y agoWho says they use IE for googling? :-)
- enscr 13y agoI've tried switching to Bing (kinda forced on a Lumia) and also sometimes when I can't find what I'm looking for with google. Without fail I've found myself switching back from Bing almost instantly even if I'm stuck with IE.
- cbr 13y agoIE11 normally sends "Trident/7.0" and not "MSIE". Apparently Microsoft has added "google.com" to the Compatibility View List [1], which means IE11 now sends Google a User Agent that does include "MSIE". Google is interpreting this to mean it's an old version of IE, and sending the legacy view. You can manually disable the CVL, but then other sites that Microsoft has determined need old versions of IE won't work. I suspect Google will update their UA regexp soon, and this will be fixed, but it does sound like a Microsoft bug. [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg699485(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg699485(v=vs.85).as... (I work for Google, on unrelated things.)
- joombar 13y agoTwo different user agent strings for one version of one browser? That can change at any moment based on a list the site authors don't control? There's no way that'd ever confuse things!
- lucideer 13y agoWhich is precisely why good web developers never trust user agents. Because they confuse things and cause bugs like this. It's lazy/incompetent practice, which shouldn't really excusable for such a supposed massive advocate of web standards. MS are no shining example, but it's pot calling kettle black. Definitely a Google bug - a long standing one
- esrauch 13y agoThere are several reasons why UA detection is relevant where feature detection fails. The first is that you can serve prebuilt js binaries that have only the relevant logic for the requesting browser; strictly smaller js files for every user since you aren't serving irrelevant js. Some things aren't feature detectable, like actual weird bugs in behavior that need browser specific workarounds. In this case it looks like MS has the domain listed for their fallback mode, which doesn't just change the UA but actually changes the browser behavior (IE9 in IE8 mode has no canvas support and will fail the feature detection for canvas appropriately).
- dangrossman 13y agoIt looks to have been fixed already. I'm on Win8.1, with IE11, and get the same Google homepage I get in Chrome. I haven't touched any settings.
- snarkAttack 13y agoI don't understand this bug at all. The guy reported the problem with a screenshot that demonstrates absolutely nothing. Hey guys! Here's a screenshot of Google looking prefectly normal. Please fix it! And don't say anything I don't like either! (＊whine＊ ＊whine＊) There's a second screenshot from another user, which does demonstrate a screwed up grid layout. Is that the problem? If so, that should not be described as "legacy mode". What does the original user even mean when he says legacy mode? Does he mean a Google page where "instant" does not re-render the page as you type your search terms? Who knows? Way to be vague. In any event, if the user now suddenly has to type the "enter" key, to get completely legible search results, and there's no other side-effect acting as a barrier to the conveyance of information, that is HARDLY a bug. Oh god, an extra key stroke, and it's deliberate obfuscation to the exclusion of "Internet Explorer 11 Users" as second class citizens, as if this somehow violates "their" protected status according to rules of engagement or something.
- w1ntermute 13y agoThis is what I'm seeing in IE v11.0.9600.16384 on Windows 8.1 Pro (x64): http://i.imgur.com/9Vhx1pe.png http://i.imgur.com/9Vhx1pe.png Enabling/disabling Compatibility View has no effect - it looks just fine to me either way.
- diminoten 13y agoMaybe it's been fixed by Google already?
- AaronFriel 13y agoBefore anyone damns Microsoft or Google here, I'd like to mention Hanlon's razor, or my preferred variant: Never assume malice when ignorance will do. Someone broke something, probably not intentionally. Microsoft has a shady history here, Google has a shady history here (esp. with hostile treatment of Microsoft user agents with YouTube and Maps!), so in the absence of further evidence let's not point fingers.
- mal3x4u 13y ago??? 1. who is using windows? (I can't believe that someone that uses windows reads these news... just go for politics ! 2. why don't you use a browser? IE is known as a tool to download a browser!!!!!!
- CurtHagenlocher 13y agoFor what it's worth, I found I had to turn compatibility mode back on in order to upload files in Gmail.