Internet Explorer 5

Internet Explorer 5 was released in 1999 and was included with Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 and Windows Me. It was also available for Windows 3.1x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98. It is the last version of Internet Explorer with support for versions prior to Windows NT 4.0 SP6a (Windows 3.1x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 SP3, Windows NT 4.0 SP4, Windows NT 4.0 SP5 and Windows NT 4.0 SP6).

Initially planned to be released in July 1998, it was delayed until March 1999 due to Y2K issues. It was released in tandem with Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2.

A version of IE 5 was ported to Solaris and HP-UX through the use of MainWin's xDe environment and uses the Trident engine. IE for Mac OS uses a different engine called Tasman which is also used in Office:mac, Entourage, and MSN for Mac OS X.

An updated version, 5.01 was released at the end of 1999 and is pre-installed in Windows 2000. However, it still identifies itself as 5.00. The difference with 5.00 is the image used in the About box.

It is also included in Office 2000 as an optional component and in Office XP as a requirement prior to install.