Internet Explorer 3
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (IE3) is the third, and by now, discontinued, version of the Internet Explorer graphical web browser which was announced in March 1996, and was released on August 13, 1996 by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and on January 8, 1997 for Apple Mac OS (see IE for Mac). It began serious competition against Netscape Navigator in the first Browser war. It was Microsoft's first browser release with a major internal development component. It was the first more widely used version of Internet Explorer, although it did not surpass Netscape or become the browser with the most market share. During its tenure, IE market share went from roughly 3–9% in early 1996 to 20–30% by the end of 1997. In September 1997 it was superseded by Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.
Screenshot Internet Explorer 3 in Windows 95 | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Initial release |
|
| Stable release | 3.03 SP1 (3.03.3006)
/ August 1998 |
| Operating system | |
| Platform | x86, 68k, PPC, MIPS, Alpha AXP |
| Included with | Windows 95 OSR 2 |
| Predecessor | Internet Explorer 2 (1995) |
| Successor | Internet Explorer 4 (1997) |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
IE3 was the first commercial browser with Cascading Style Sheets support. It introduced support for ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) system for content metadata. This version was the first version of Internet Explorer to use the blue 'e' logo, which later became a symbol of the browser. Version 3 came bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version of the Windows Address Book, and was itself included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. There were 16-bit and 32-bit versions depending on the OS.
This is the first version of Internet Explorer developed without Spyglass source code, but still used Spyglass technology, so the Spyglass licensing information remained in the program's documentation. In 1996 Microsoft said of its new browser "Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 adds many new features which are great for HTML authors and demonstrates our accelerating commitment to W3C HTML standards."
Internet Explorer 3 requires Windows 3.1 or Windows NT 3.5 at the minimum. It is the last version of Internet Explorer to support Windows NT 3.5 and Windows NT 4.0 RTM—SP2; as the following version, Internet Explorer 4 only supports Windows NT 4.0 SP3 or later.
Internet Explorer 3 is no longer supported, and is not available for download from Microsoft.