Member Avatar for Violet_82

Hi all, I have a few questions about compatibility mode. I am using IE9 at the moment.
First and foremost, I have noticed that the compatibility icon tends to appear quite often when browsing the internet: it appears when I look at the bbc site http://www.bbc.co.uk/ and w3c schools just to name a few http://www.w3schools.com/. Does it mean that those sites are somehow broken?

Then, is it possible that when viewing a website IE9 will force it in and therefore display it in compatibility mode? This assuming you haven't clicked the compatibility mode icon.
My understanding is that, if and when that icon appears, if you don't click it the site still works. If you do click it, then - as microsoft says http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/use-compatibility-view#ie=ie-10 - that site sits within the compatibility sites list and will therefore be displayed in compatibility mode all the time unless you clear that list.

I have done quite a bit of reading about it, but I am not clear whether just the mere fact that the compatibility icon appears means "your site has problems" or not.

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To answer : the Compatibility View icon means Internet Explorer is rendering the page in an older document mode instead of its native IE9 standards mode. That does not automatically mean the site is “broken” — it means IE has chosen (or been told) to fall back to older rendering so legacy layouts behave as expected. Some modern features may be missing in that mode.

Yes, IE9 can switch a site into Compatibility View without you clicking the icon. Common triggers are: the local Compatibility View list (user-added entries or the “display intranet sites” option), Microsoft’s compatibility lists, enterprise/Group Policy settings (including Enterprise Mode), or the page signalling an older mode (via X-UA-Compatible header/meta) or having no proper DOCTYPE. As mentioned, there is a header/meta mechanism to request a specific mode, but server-side headers are generally more reliable than an in-page meta tag.

Quick troubleshooting and fixes:

  • Press F12 and check Document Mode (or Emulation) to see exactly which mode IE is using.
  • Tools > Compatibility View settings to see if the site is listed or if intranet/automatic lists are enabled.
  • Use the Network/Headers panel (F12) to check for any X-UA-Compatible response header.
  • Ensure a correct modern DOCTYPE (for example, a simple HTML5 DOCTYPE) and remove legacy markup that forces older modes.
  • If you control the server, serve the compatibility header as a response header rather than relying on a meta tag. In corporate scenarios, check Group Policy or the enterprise site list.

Note: you cannot guarantee every visitor sees standards mode if their browser or admin has forced compatibility. The safest long-term approach is to make pages standards-compliant and use the F12 tools to diagnose any specific cases. For technical detail on the compatibility header, see .

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Member Avatar for paulkd

I use the following meta tag:-

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1" />

There's a MS article here

Click Here

Member Avatar for Violet_82

thanks I came across that too, but using that metatag means that I will force the browser to display only the feature that the broswer specified in the header supports, and I don't want that, I want the page to be displayed with all the features. This method could be I think useful for debugging only I presume.
But what I am asking is whether the compatibility buttons essentially means that some work needs to be done or I can leave it like that, and whether the browser can actually force a website to display in compatibility mode
thanks

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