Pocket Internet Explorer Overview

Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer offers the following important capabilities for the Windows Mobile-based device:

A rich Web experience without the need to connect through a special content-modifying proxy.
Implementation of key Internet technology standards such as the following:
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to help improve the security of transactions. For more information, see Pocket Internet Explorer Security.
- HTML 4.0. For more information, see HTML Support for Pocket Internet Explorer.
- Microsoft JScript® for scripting Web page behavior. For more information, see Scripting Support in Pocket Internet Explorer.
- XHTML.
- Cascading style sheets (CSS).
- Frames for basic formatting.
  
  Note Frames consume a large amount of space on the screen, just for the borders and margins, and therefore are not recommended for Pocket Internet Explorer. If you must use frames, limit them to no more than two per screen, preferably stacked vertically to maximize screen space.
- Cookies for storing local data.
Support for ActiveX® controls.
Support for Extensible Markup Language (XML), which enables Web-standard data exchange and the development of rich Web applications for the mobile device.

Some of the innovative ways that Pocket Internet Explorer delivers the Web to small-screen devices include the following:

A Fit to Screen menu option that dynamically resizes Web pages to maximize viewing on the smaller, vertically oriented screens of Pocket PC devices.
Smart caching, which determines whether local versions of Web pages are available, thereby potentially avoiding trips to the Internet, improving download speed, and saving connection charges.

Additional resources