How to launch Internet Explorer on Windows 11

Internet Explorer is one of the oldest browsers around. Launched by Microsoft in 1995, it had long been discontinued (and discouraged for use) by Windows after the launch of its newer browser, Microsoft Edge.¹ While official support had been dropped, Internet Explorer is still part of Edge as "IE mode" until 2029 and installed deep inside Windows 11.²

That said, a lot of people still need to use Windows 11 to access outdated company or government websites, internal portals, proprietary technologies and, for taxpayers here in the Philippines, adjusting margins, fonts and headers and footers for eBIRForms by accessing IE's old page setup dialog.

Page setup dialog box on Internet Explorer

Simply searching for Internet Explorer on your Windows device may display the program but when launched, will instead redirect you to Microsoft Edge. To force launch the exact Internet Explorer application, here's what you need to do.

If you prefer to watch this tutorial, you can view it here on our official YouTube channel.

-----

How to "Force" Launch Internet Explorer on Windows 11

1. Open the Start menu and search for Notepad. You can use any other text editor software like Notepad++ as long as you follow the succeeding steps, but we highly recommend using Notepad.

2. Type in the following line in the new text document: CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true

3. Then save the text document as a file with VBS extension. For example, "ie.vbs". Add in quotation marks before clicking Save. Make sure to save it in a location that you are familiar with. I would recommend to just save it on your Desktop.

4. Look for the saved file that looks like the one shown below.

5. Now, just double-click the saved file and it will forcefully launch Internet Explorer. Don't panic if you are shown a blank tab as this is what it will always look like when launching Internet Explorer using this method.