Visitors Who Cannot Go Past Internet Explorer 8

The last updates for Windows XP

Today Microsoft releases the last security updates for Windows XP and Office 2003. Computers running XP will still start tomorrow, and many will go on browsing the web.

The newest Internet Explorer that XP can run is version 8. Versions 9, 10 and 11 need a later Windows, so anyone using Internet Explorer on XP stops there.

Some of those people are your customers, often placing an order from an office computer. The site has to let them.

Who is still on version 8

Chrome and Firefox still install and update on XP, so a person at home can switch.

Many office computers cannot. They are locked by company rules, or kept on Internet Explorer for an older accounting or ordering program.

So the people stuck on version 8 are often buying for a business: an office manager, a site supervisor, a bookkeeper.

To find them in Google Analytics, open Browser and OS under Technology, choose Internet Explorer and look at the versions. Adding the operating system version as a second column shows which visits come from XP.

What breaks in version 8

Version 8 came out in 2009, before most of what makes a site work well on phones. On a recent site, these are the usual failures:

• Responsive layouts, because it ignores the rules that rearrange a page for each screen width.
• Newer page sections, such as header and navigation, which it cannot style without a small script.
• Menus and forms run by script, as recent versions of some common script libraries no longer support it.
• Labels written inside the fields, which it does not show, leaving a column of blank boxes.
• Logos and icons drawn as SVG, which do not appear at all.
• Secure pages on shared hosting, which can show a certificate warning on XP.

The fourth is the easiest to miss. A tidy quote form becomes a stack of empty boxes, leaving the visitor to guess where the phone number goes.

Layouts and certificates

Responsive layouts are often written for phones first, with wider arrangements added for larger screens. Version 8 skips the additions and stretches the phone layout across a wide monitor.

The certificate warning has another cause. Many hosts let several secure sites share one server address, using a feature Internet Explorer cannot use on XP, so it may receive the wrong certificate.

Both can be fixed. A separate stylesheet can give version 8 a fixed desktop layout, and a certificate on its own server address works in any browser.

Scripts and newer page sections

Recent sites mark up their pages with sections such as header, navigation and article. Without a small script that introduces them, version 8 ignores their styling and the layout can collapse.

Menus, sliders and forms often depend on a shared script library. Upgrading it to a version that dropped Internet Explorer 8 can break them there, unseen in any newer browser.

Working matters more than matching

A page in version 8 does not need to look like the same page in Chrome. Square corners, a plainer font or a missing shadow cost the visitor nothing.

What it must do is let them read every page, find the phone number and address, open the menu, send each form and finish an order or booking.

Sites built this way start from a page that works everywhere, then add refinements for browsers that can show them.

A worked example

A tool rental shop in an industrial area rents compact excavators, floor sanders, scaffolding and pressure washers to contractors and homeowners. Its responsive site, launched last fall, takes reservations through a form.

Several contractors' offices phoned to say the form would not send. Staff at the counter, on new computers, could find nothing wrong.

On an old XP laptop the problems appeared at once: a menu shown as a long stack of links, blank form fields, a date picker that did nothing and a certificate warning.

The form now has a label above each field, and plain date fields that the picker improves in newer browsers.

Version 8 gets the desktop layout from its own stylesheet, the certificate moved to its own address, and the old laptop stays in the office for testing.

Testing in an old browser

Test on a real copy of version 8: an old computer, or one of the free Windows copies with older Internet Explorer that Microsoft provides for testing websites.

The settings in newer Internet Explorer that imitate older versions are fine for a quick look, but forms and scripts can behave differently in the real one.

Test tasks rather than pages: find the phone number, open each menu, send each form, place a test order and check that the confirmation email arrives.

A polite note, not a locked door

Some sites answer an old browser with a page saying it is not supported, and nothing else. The office manager on a locked computer cannot act on that, and leaves.

A small note suggesting a newer browser is fine, as long as the page underneath still works. Visitors on XP will move on in their own time.

The counter-case

A shop whose customers browse mostly on phones and new home computers may see few version 8 visits. Its effort belongs in the phone layout, and polishing version 8 would be wasted.

For that shop too, an hour testing the basic tasks is worth it. A form that fails in one browser fails silently, and the visitor who gave up does not phone to say so.

A site being planned now should simply be built to work in version 8 from the start, which costs far less than repairing it after launch.

The tasks to test in version 8

1. Check Analytics for version 8 and XP visits.
2. Find a real copy of version 8 to test with.
3. Read the home page and each main service page.
4. Open every menu and follow its links.
5. Send each form and confirm it arrives.
6. Open the secure pages and watch for warnings.
7. Fix what fails before polishing what looks plain.

Step five finds the failures nobody reports. A form that will not send in an old browser leaves no record and no complaint, only an order that went somewhere else.

The opposite trouble, a site built so tightly around old Internet Explorer that other browsers and phones cannot use it, is covered in an accounting office site that only works in Internet Explorer.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.