Internet Explorer Only Meta Tags

Four meta tags that only Internet Explorer read, most of them switching off something it did to your page uninvited.

In 2026: All dead with the browser. IMAGETOOLBAR turned off the floating save and print buttons IE6 drew over any image wider than 200 pixels. MSSmartTagsPreventParsing was the web's response to Microsoft planning to insert its own links into other people's text.

Where it came from: MSDN, 1999 to 2001. The Smart Tags plan was announced and abandoned in 2001 after a public outcry. MDN ↗

<!-- Stop IE6 drawing save and print buttons over your images -->
<meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no">

<!-- Let form controls use the Windows XP theme -->
<meta http-equiv="MSThemeCompatible" content="yes">

<!-- Refuse Smart Tags, the 2001 plan to auto-link words in your pages -->
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true">

<!-- And the one that outlived them, forcing IE out of compatibility mode -->
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">