This tip was printed from the MalekTips Computer and Technology Help and Tips website at http://malektips.com.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 - Fool Websites Into Believing You're Running Internet Explorer 6

For the most part, when you visit websites, a "User Agent String" is sent from your browser to the website so it recognizes which browser, and to some extent, operating system, you are running. This way websites can display alternate versions optimized for specific web browsers or warn you that the site will not run on the particular browser you are currently using.

It is possible that some websites will not function correctly when you visit them with Internet Explorer 7 as the sites may look for a User Agent String specifying version 6 of the web browser only.

To deal with this issue, Microsoft has released a utility that lets the Internet Explorer 7 web browser report itself as a previous version, making it possible to visit some of these older sites.

Microsoft: User Agent String Utility 2