Internet Explorer on Wikipedia

Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer; commonly abbreviated to IE), is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year. Later versions were available as free downloads, or in service packs, and included in the OEM service releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows.

IE has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003 with IE5 and IE6.[citation needed] Since its peak of popularity, its usage share has declined in the face of renewed competition from other web browsers to 55%, and is slowly trending downward. Microsoft spent over $100 million per year on IE[1] in the late 1990s, with over 1000 people working on it by 1999.[2]

The latest release is Internet Explorer 8, which is available as a free update for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later, Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008, and is included with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Internet Explorer was originally planned to be omitted from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in Europe but Microsoft later dropped the plans, and instead included a browser ballot screen with the products, allowing users to select a different web browser if they wish.[3][4][5][6]

Versions of Internet Explorer for other operating systems have also been produced, including an embedded OEM version called Internet Explorer for Windows CE (IE CE), available for WinCE based platforms and currently based on IE6; Internet Explorer for Pocket PC, later rebranded Internet Explorer Mobile, which is made for Windows Mobile and Windows CE and remains in development alongside the more advanced desktop versions; and the discontinued Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (Solaris and HP-UX).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer