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MSHTML[1][2][3] (also known as Trident[2][3][4]) is the proprietary browser engine of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. It debuted with the release of Internet Explorer 4 in 1997. Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 10 is no longer supported as of June 15, 2022.[5] Microsoft recommends that users switch to the latest version of Microsoft Edge, which includes an "Internet Explorer mode".[6][7] MSHTML is written in C++.[8]

History

MSHTML debuted with the release of Internet Explorer 4 in 1997. For versions 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer, Microsoft made significant changes to MSHTML's layout capabilities to improve compliance with Web standards and add support for new technologies.[9][10][11]

Discontinuation and legacy support

As of 2021, MSHTML is vulnerable to cyberattacks that exploit remote code execution.[1][12] Microsoft has recommended that Windows 10 and 11 users switch to the newer Microsoft Edge browser based on the Chromium engine for improved privacy and security.[6] For legacy sites that can only function with the Internet Explorer browser, Edge users can enable "Internet Explorer mode" (IE mode) to switch from Chromium to the MSHTML engine to handle such circumstances.[7] Microsoft stated that this feature would be supported in Edge until at least 2029.[5]

Standards compliance

Current versions of MSHTML, as of Internet Explorer 9, have introduced support for CSS 3, HTML5, and SVG, as well as other modern web standards. Web standards compliance was gradually improved with the evolution of MSHTML. Although each version of IE has improved standards support, including the introduction of a "standards-compliant mode" in version 6, the core standards used to build web pages (HTML and CSS) were sometimes implemented incompletely. For example, there was no support for the <abbr> element, which is part of the HTML 4.01 standard, before IE 8. There were also some CSS attributes missing from MSHTML, such as min-height, as of Internet Explorer 6. As of Internet Explorer 8, CSS 2.1 is fully supported, as well as some CSS 3.0 attributes.[13] This lack of standards compliance has been known to cause rendering bugs and a lack of support for modern web technologies, which often increases development time for web pages.[14]

Microsoft alternatives

Apart from MSHTML, Microsoft also has and uses several other layout engines. One of them, known as Tasman, was used in Internet Explorer 5 for Mac. Development of Internet Explorer for Mac was halted in roughly 2003, but development of Tasman continued to a limited extent, and was later included in Office 2004 for Mac. Office for Mac 2011 uses the open source WebKit engine. Microsoft's now-defunct web design product, Microsoft Expression Web, as well as Visual Studio 2008 and later, do not use the MSHTML engine, but rather a different engine.[15]

In 2014, MSHTML was forked to create the EdgeHTML engine from Microsoft Edge Legacy on Windows 10. The new engine is "designed for interoperability with the modern web" and deprecates or removes some legacy components and behaviors, including document modes, ensuring that pure, standards-compliant HTML will render properly in browsers without the need for special considerations by web developers.[16][17] This resulted in a completely new browser called Microsoft Edge (later referred to as "Microsoft Edge Legacy",[18] with a flat blue "e" icon) which replaced Internet Explorer as the default browser and became the base of Microsoft's web related services, until its replacement with a Blink/Chromium[19][20]-based browser, also called Microsoft Edge (with a new wave-like icon) in late 2020.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Analyzing attacks that exploit the CVE-2021-40444 MSHTML vulnerability, Microsoft Security. 2021-09-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Vulnerability in Microsoft MSHTML Could Allow Remote Code Execution, New York State Office of Information Technology Services. 2021-09-08.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Internet Explorer - Trident Engine, Microsoft Support.
  4. ↑ RIP Internet Explorer: Microsoft's iconic browser is being killed off in June by Mark Hachman, PCWorld. 2022-05-24.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lifecycle FAQ - Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Docs. 2016-07-18.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Make the switch from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Support. Accessed 2022-03-12.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 What is Internet Explorer (IE) mode?, Microsoft Docs. 2022-03-02.
  8. ↑ Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone, IEBlog. 2007-12-19.
  9. ↑ Details on our CSS changes for IE7, IEBLog. 2006-08-22.
  10. ↑ Overview of Platform Improvements in IE8 RC1, IEBlog. 2009-01-29.
  11. ↑ Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8, IEBlog. 2008-03-03.
  12. ↑ Microsoft MSHTML Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, Microsoft Security Response Center. 2021-09-23.
  13. ↑ CSS Compatibility and Internet Explorer, Microsoft Docs. 2011-03-09.
  14. ↑ Microsoft's Internet Explorer Slows Down Web Development by Anup Shah, Onenaught.com. 2007-12-14.
  15. ↑ Office Live and SharePoint by Rob Mauceri, Microsoft Docs. 2007-04-11. "SharePoint Designer doesn't use Trident. SharePoint Designer, Expression Web, and the next version of Visual Studio's Visual Web Designer (code name Orcas) all use the same standards-based web design component. This component was developed jointly by the three product teams for high fidelity rendering of web standards like CSS, XHTML, as well as ASP.net."
  16. ↑ Living on the Edge - our next step in helping the web just work, IEBlog. 2014-11-11.
  17. ↑ Project Spartan and the Windows 10 January Preview Build, IEBlog. 20115-01-22.
  18. ↑ Microsoft 365 apps and services to end support for IE 11; End of support coming to the legacy version of Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Lifecycle Policy, Microsoft Docs.
  19. ↑ Download the new Microsoft Edge based on Chromium, Microsoft Support, KB4501095.
  20. ↑ New year, new browser - The new Microsoft Edge is out of preview and now available for download by Joe Belfiore, Windows Blogs'. 2020-01-15.

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