A utility that opens an Internet Explorer 7.0 window that is configured to report its identity to websites as being Internet Explorer 6.0.

Whenever Internet Explorer releases a new major version, Microsoft makes every attempt to coordinate the change with major web site owners so that users who upgrade to the latest version can take advantage of new features available on the upgraded browsing platform. A character string called the “User Agent String” identifies the major version of the browser to web sites so that the sites can offer certain functionality on particular browser versions. In some cases, websites might misidentify a new version of IE as an outdated version, with results ranging from rendering and behavior issues to total rejection of the user. This utility changes cerregistry keys on an IE 7.0 installation to allow a user to mimic an IE 6.0 installation as a simple workaround until problematic sites update their code. It also offers users the option to report these problematic sites to Microsoft.

User Agent String Utility version 2