Compatibility Issues When Surfing in IE7? Use User Agent String Utility to Spoof or Simulate as IE6

Although almost all websites has supported Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), the latest generation of popular web browser from Microsoft, but there are still some very few Internet sites that are still not updating the web server configuration for Internet Explorer 7 compatibility, and are not accessible by IE7 users and blocked the Internet surfers from viewing the web pages properly when using IE 7. To solve this problem, Microsoft has released IE7 User-Agent String (now at version 2.0) as the workaround for IE7 surfers who can’t access to Internet sites that block access to IE7.

User Agent is a text string which consists of information such as the application name, version, host operating system, and language sent to websites by the browser or search engine crawler to identify itself. In IE7 case, the User Agent header string that will be sent are depending on Windows operating system user is using:

Windows XP SP2: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Windows 2003 Server: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.2)
Windows Vista: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)

Misconfigured websites might misidentify a new version of IE 7 as an outdated version, thus returning web pages with results ranging from rendering and behavior issues to total rejection or denied of access to the user.

User Agent String Utility 2.0 comes as an executable program that will open Internet Explorer 7.0 web browser window instance that will identify itself as Internet Explorer 6 to websites by sending the IE6 User Agent string, effectively make use of all features and security enhancements in IE7 but yet has the benefit of spoofing or simulating with the identity of IE6. The tool changes certain registry keys on IE 7.0 installation to do the emulation of IE 6.0. The changing User Agent string tool is also useful for surfers who simply want to hide their real web browser used.

User Agent String Utility supports Windows Server 2003 or with Service Pack 1, Windows Vista, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit or with Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 installed with Internet Explorer 7. User Agent String Utility 2 can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft Download Center. Only genuine Windows product users are allowed for the free download, and Windows Genuine Advantage validation is required to download the User Agent String Utility.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 12:39 am and is filed under Web Browsers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.