back | IE 6, Microsoft’s Weapon of Mass Destruction

IE 6, Microsoft’s Weapon of Mass Destruction

Designing and developing websites with valid W3C markup and having them even remotely function properly in Internet Explorer 6 is almost as frustrating as working with a client who’s idea of a beautiful button is using the default bevel options within layer styles in Adobe Photoshop. Instead of sacrificing usability and trying to fit a Ferrari engine into a 1958 Ford Edsel, I propose using a JavaScript sniffer and redirecting the visitor to either a separate page or directory on your site. That page can either contain IE 6 friendly version of your site or simply display some text copy explaining that IE 6 is not supported on your website.

The following javascript placed in your <head> tag takes care of that. Any Internet Explorer browser version 6 and older will be automatically redirected to the /support/ directory on your site.

<!--[if lte IE 6]>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=/support" />
<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */
window.top.location = '/support';
/* ]]> */
</script>
<![endif]-->


2 Responses

  1. Hesham says:
    March 13, 2009 at 5:50 am

    I have been designing for firfox users, I am a firefox supporter, but I think I should give some attention to IE!

    Thanks for the useful tip!

  2. Simon says:
    March 13, 2009 at 8:37 am

    Thanks Heasham. If only everyone used FireFox :)

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