Understanding legacy document modes
Use the following value to display the webpage in edge mode, which is
the highest standards mode supported by Internet Explorer, from
Internet Explorer 6 through IE11.
<meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="IE=edge"
Note that this is functionally equivalent to using the HTML5 doctype. It places Internet Explorer into the highest supported
document mode. Edge most is most useful for regularly maintained
websites that are routinely tested for interoperability between
multiple browsers, including Internet Explorer.
Note
Starting with IE11, edge mode is considered the preferred document mode. (In earlier versions, it was considered experimental.)
To learn more, see Document modes are deprecated. Starting with
Windows Internet Explorer 8, some web developers used the edge mode
meta element to hide the Compatibility View button on the address bar.
As of IE11, this is no longer necessary as the button has been removed
from the address bar. Because it forces all pages to be opened in
standards mode, regardless of the version of Internet Explorer, you
might be tempted to use edge mode for all pages viewed with Internet
Explorer. Don't do this, as the X-UA-Compatible header is only
supported starting with Internet Explorer 8.
Tip
If you want all supported versions of Internet Explorer to open your pages in standards mode, use the HTML5 document type declaration, as shown in the earlier example.