Internet Explorer 6
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (commonly abbreviated to IE6), is a graphical web browser developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 lines of operating systems. It was the most widely used web browser during its tenure (surpassing Internet Explorer 5.x), attaining a peak in usage share during 2002 and 2003 in the high 80s, and together with other versions up to 95% in 2003. It only slowly declined up to 2007, when it lost about half its market share to Windows Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox between late 2006 to 2008.Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 was released on August 27, 2001, shortly after Windows XP was finished. It includes DHTML enhancements, content restricted inline frames, and partial support of CSS level 1, DOM level 1 and SMIL 2.0.[2] The MSXML engine was also updated to version 3.0. Other new features included a new version of the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK), Media bar, Windows Messenger integration, fault collection, automatic image resizing, P3P, and a new look-and-feel that was in line with the "Luna" visual style of Windows XP, when used in Windows XP. XBM image files were no longer supported. In 2002, the Gopher protocol was disabled and support for it was dropped in Internet Explorer 7.[3]In a May 7, 2003 Microsoft online chat, Brian Countryman, Internet Explorer Program Manager, declared that Internet Explorer would cease to be distributed separately from Windows (IE 6 would be the last standalone version);[4] it would, however, be continued as a part of the evolution of Windows, with updates coming only bundled in Windows upgrades. Thus, Internet Explorer and Windows itself would be kept more in sync. However, after one release in this fashion (IE6 SP2 in Windows XP SP2, in August 2004), Microsoft changed its plan and released Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 in late 2006. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 was the last version of Internet Explorer not to have "Windows" in the tile, with later versions shifting to "Windows Internet Explorer
