IE8 rendering as IE7 by default?

Question

I just got a new computer at work, and IE8 configured to display all sites as IE7. It was a shock to me. Does anyone know if ALL installations of IE8 are default for rendering IE7? And if so, can a web developer do to force IE8 rendering?

Answer 1

As I know, by default, IE8 only displays intranet sites as IE7. To disable this, go to "Tools → Compatibility View Settings" and uncheck the box "Display intranet sites in compatibility mode." Also in this dialog box the "Show all sites in compatibility view" checkbox is checked - it looks like it has been checked for you. This is not a standard setting; it may be your domain policy.

Anyway, if you need to get IE8 to display pages, since IE8 uses the X-UA-Compatible http header. You can add the meta tag to the head section of the page, for example:

 <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" /> 

MSDN