Internet Explorer

	3.1	NT3.1	NT3.5	NT3.51	95	NT4	98FE	98SE	Me	2000	XP	Vista	7	8	8.1	10	11
1	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
1.5	yes	yes	yes	yes
2	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
3	yes		yes	yes	yes	yes
4	yes			yes	yes	SP3	yes
5	yes			yes	yes	SP3	yes	yes
5.5					yes	SP3	yes	yes	yes	yes
6						SP6a	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
7											SP2	yes
8											SP2	yes	yes
9												SP2	yes
10													SP1	yes
11													SP1	*	yes	yes	yes

IE 11 is supported in Windows Embedded Standard 8, but not the regular Windows 8.

IE 11 can be accessed in Windows 11 with the following vbs code: CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true

(source for the above)

IE 5.5 and IE 6 installs high encryption to Windows 9x and NT 4, regardless of language.

IE 4 contains the Windows Desktop Update, which contains Active Desktop and the Quick Launch Bar, among other things. IE 5 to 6 still contains this update, but it's not installed by default. To install it with the IE 5.x or 6 installer, use one of these command lines: (source)

IE 5.x NT 4.0: IE5Setup.exe /C:"ie5wzd /e:IE4Shell_NTx86 /I:Y"
IE 5.x Win 95: IE5Setup.exe /C:"ie5wzd /e:IE4Shell_WIN /I:Y"
IE 6.0 NT 4.0: IE6Setup.exe /C:"ie6wzd /e:IE4Shell_NTx86 /I:Y"

Note that, in my testing, running the command line for IE 6 on NT 4 without IE 6 already installed makes the installer say I need to download files from the internet, despite the fact that I have all cab files locally. I had to install IE 6 first by running IE6Setup.exe without any arguments, and then run the above command line to install the shell/desktop update while IE 6 is already installed.

Safari

Safari had a Windows version from 3.0 (2007) to 5.1.7 (2012). 6.0 returned to being exclusive to Apple platforms.

Safari 3 for Windows was claimed to only support XP and Vista, but versions up to 3.1.2 (i.e. before 3.2) also run on Windows 2000. Versions up to 4.0.3 run on XP SP0/SP1.

Info source: The Apple Wiki (also has download links)

Versions from 4.0.4 to 5.1.2 fail to run on Windows 10 21H2 with the error "The procedure entry point ?createThread@WTF@@[a bunch of @s and capital letters] could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Program Files (x86)\Safari\Safari.dll." Other versions, both older and newer, can run.

Opera

Not to be confused with ChrOpera.

The last version of Opera is 12.18 for Windows and 12.16 for Linux and Mac.

While its age makes it long obsolete for the modern web, one unique feature is that it supports rendering WML pages, and WAP sites will not try to redirect you to the PC site if you use Opera. AFAIK, this is the only PC browser that can do this. While WAP sites are basically extinct now in 2024, if you want to make WAP sites yourself, you can play around with them in Opera.

Windows version	Opera version
3.1	3.62
NT 3.51	5.12
95	10.10
98/Me/NT4	10.63
2000	12.02
XP SP0/SP1	12.12
XP SP2+	12.18

Wikipedia in April 2025 is wrong about these points, according to my testing:

3.62, the last 3.x version, is stated on Wikipedia to be the last version to support Windows 3.x. In reality, even 2.12 only supported 3.1x, not 3.0.
10.63, the last 10.x version, is stated on Wikipedia to be the last version to support Windows 9x. In reality, it works on 98 and Me but not 95. 10.10, the last version before 10.50, is the last version to work on 95.

In March 2026, it was changed to say the last version for Win95 and Win98 is 10.10, which is still wrong, as the last version for Win98 is 10.63, as stated above.

2.10 is the first public version. Until version 5, it requires a registration key to use after the free trial period. From version 5 until 8.5, it was ad-supported, and entering a registration key removes the ad and allowed the user to "receive premium support".

Version history on Opera website

(moved and nerfed since no later than 2019)

Edge

Not to be confused with ChromEdge.

While not quite "retro" in 2024, Edge is also discontinued and devoured by Chromium like Opera.

Edge was discontinued on March 9, 2021 and replaced by ChromEdge in Windows 10 21H1 for new installations, and the April 2021 (postponed to May 2021 for 1809 and 1803) update (20H2, 2004, 1909, 1903, 1809, 1803) for existing installations. It's possible to extract Edge as a cab package and install it on newer versions of Windows 10 (11 untested), with a script that uses some DISM commands. Though, if you installed the Edge cab, you will need to fight with each subsequent update installed, which will again remove Edge and replace it with ChromEdge. (I did this in July 2022 and it worked back then, so at least it survived longer than the below method)

Another method, reported on Reddit, is simply backing up the folder, although it's reported to not work any more since the 2022-01 security update.

Otter Browser

Otter Browser aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5. -- otter-browser.org

It's a browser made in Qt that supports QtWebKit and QtWebEngine (Chromium) backends.

Development seems to have stalled, as there has not been new releases since weekly440 for over two years.

weekly440 is also the first release without an XP build. The previous release, 1.0.03, is the last release with an XP build.