Once upon a time, Internet Explorer was the default browser on all Apple Mac devices. Until 2003, when Apple released Safari, which eventually resulted in Microsoft discontinuing any support for Internet Explorer for Mac from 2005 onwards.
Built to take advantage of the full power of Windows 8 and Windows RT, Internet Explorer 10 starts and loads sites almost instantly. It brings a fluid responsiveness to the web that feels totally new. Everything you want to do on the web is a swipe, tap, or click away. Perfect for touch. Internet Explorer 11 has many features such as: tabs, fast loading and a dynamic interface. In addition, IE 11 supports RSS, which are shortcuts to applications on other sites to help you instantly find the things that interest you most. Internet Explorer for Mac, a.k.a. Internet Explorer:mac or Internet Explorer Macintosh Edition, was a proprietary but free-of-charge web browser developed by Microsoft for the Macintosh platform. Initial versions were developed from the same code base as Internet Explorer for Windows, however later versions diverged, particularly with the.
After that, the agreement that Apple and Microsoft was dissolved and any download links from official sites were removed. Getting IE or a newer Microsoft browser, Edge, on a Mac, simply isn't possible unless you want to download a potentially risky version from Torrent sites (not recommended).
So unless you are still running Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and earlier versions, you won't be able to get and operate Internet Explorer, and the only versions you might be able to access have been unsupported since 2005.
For anyone with a passing familiarity with computers, that sounds like a major security breach waiting to happen. You don't want to be attempting to run a browser that hasn't benefited from any official support and upgrades for over a decade; so for those who need access to IE, this article is about how to get Internet Explorer for Mac.
How to get Internet Explorer for Mac?
As we mentioned, IE and Microsoft’s more evolved browser, Edge, is not directly available for Mac users. It isn't as though there aren't plenty of other browsers around, including Safari, Firefox and Chrome.
However, for those who develop apps and web-based technology, it can be useful - if not essential - to view how something is going to look and function on other web browsers, including Internet Explorer. It could be detrimental, especially if you've got users or customers of a web-based product, to launch it with no knowledge or testing of the user-experience across a range of browsers, including Internet Explorer.
Thankfully, there is a way to simulate having Internet Explorer on a Mac without downloading a security risk or using a Mac which is running Snow Leopard. Here is how you can get Internet Explorer on a Mac:
- Open Safari (this can be used to test the browser experience from other operating systems)
- Go to Preferences > Advanced
- At the bottom of this is a checkbox: Tick it: “Show Develop menu in menu bar”
- Now this gives you access to Developer Tools (known as the Develop menu in Safari’s menu bar);
- The Develop Menu is accessible through the top toolbar when Safari is open
- Go to User Agent
- Within that, you should be able to select a number of Internet Explorer and Edge browser versions to experience on a Mac, which should give you the user-experience required to test a new web-based product on those browsers on a Mac
- Whatever website you are on will automatically refresh to mirror an IE or Edge experience, on Mac. Do remember to switch back to Safari after you’ve visited that website using the User Agent option in the Develop menu.
Internet Explorer 11 For Mac
If, for any reason, you need to take the IE experience to the next level on a Mac, you could download a virtual machine (such as VMware Fusion, which has a Windows license), therefore creating a Microsoft environment on a Mac, which would allow you to download Internet Explorer.
Before you do that, it can be useful to make sure your Mac is running at peak performance and not cluttered up with unwanted system junk. Here is how you can do that:
- Download CleanMyMac X (for free, here)
- Click on the Systems Junk tab
- Once your systems have been scanned, you can safely delete anything taking up space and slowing your Mac down.
Run Internet Explorer on a virtual machine
For those who need to take this one step further, here is how you can use Internet Explorer and run other Microsoft programs.
- Buy and download virtual machine software (such as VMware fusion)
- Now download a Windows ISO file (from the relevant Microsoft website)
- Launch VMware Fusion
- During the installation sequence, click “Create a new custom virtual machine”
- Drag and drop the Windows ISO file into the dialogue window
- Click Finish
- Then relaunch the Virtual Machine
- Now you can download Internet Explorer, Edge and any number of web or app-based Microsoft products.
When you want to go back to running software on macOS, remember to close the virtual machine and revert to your Mac how it usually is. For those who want to improve their overall Mac experience, the app we mentioned - CleanMyMac X - is well worth downloading. CleanMyMac X was created to make your life and work easier, and make your Mac operate as good as new.
Run Internet Explorer on Mac is easy.
Globally, there are millions of users who are required to use Microsoft Internet Explorer for banking, human resources, tax systems, and many other corporate intranets. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and even Microsoft Edge are free browsers that are more stable and secure than IE. However, Internet Explorer is still the second most popular web browser in the world. This leaves current Mac® users in a bit of a bind. This is where Parallels Desktop® for Mac arrives as a reliable solution.
How to install Internet Explorer on Mac with Parallels Desktop:
- Download Parallels Desktop for Mac.
- Install, migrate your PC, or use an existing Boot Camp® partition of a Microsoft Windows operating system.
- Launch Internet Explorer in Microsoft Windows simultaneously alongside macOS® without rebooting
With Parallels Desktop you can easily download and run any popular PC programs, such as Microsoft Access, Paint Tool Sai or even play games.
Issues with Other Solutions:
Boot Camp – This option demands for a partition on an existing hard drive. This means a user would be required to wipe their Mac hard drive and erase all existing files and partition that hard drive to make space for a Windows operating system. These two partitions on the hard drive are not seamlessly running side by side—they are divided, and act as such. With Parallels Desktop, users run a virtual machine on their Mac, and the rich integration of the two operating systems creates a seamless match. Users are then able to copy and paste, drag and drop, use Spotlight to search within Windows, or use even Cortana on Mac. Not to mention, the ability to share folders between the two operating systems allows users to avoid rebooting your Mac every time.
Pretend to run Internet Explorer with Safari’s development tools – This option creates the opportunity for unexpected interruptions to your workflow later. Within Safari, there is an advanced setting to “Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar,” which will provide you with a drop-down menu with Develop tools to launch a webpage in another browser, such as Internet Explorer.
This is a fantastic built-in resource for web developers to test—but for an everyday user, this is not ideal. If users select one of these above options, Safari will send a different user agent. (A user agent is the string of code that a user’s browser sends to the desired site to let the site know which browser the user is attempting to access the site from.) This doesn’t always work, as web forms are rarely supported through this method, and can cause web masters to ban any further access via Safari. This is not an ideal solution for long-term use, and users will not know if this solution will work until settings are changed and attempted.
Free Internet Explorer For Mac
Need to buy a Microsoft Windows operating system? Buy directly from Microsoft below:
Internet Explorer 5 For Mac
Parallels Desktop is the #1 choice of Mac users for over 10 years for running Windows on Mac. If you’re looking to run Internet Explorer for Windows on your Mac without rebooting, we encourage you to download a FREE 14-day trial of Parallels Desktop for Mac and get started today.