Microsoft announced that it has launched an update to Internet Explorer 11 with an Enterprise Mode feature aimed at helping businesses keep up to date with software, service, and device releases. It’s available on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Microsoft says it provides better compatibility for older versions of IE and tools to manage which Web apps use it.

“Businesses can benefit from the modern Web standards, better performance, and increased security of our latest browser, while extending existing investments in legacy Web apps. And by decreasing dependencies on older versions, Internet Explorer is helping customers stay up-to-date with Windows 8.1, services like Office 365, and devices like the Surface Pro 2,” say IE program manager lead Kevin Miller and product marketing manager Fred Pullen in a joint blog post.

“Many businesses are experiencing tension between today’s Web apps and services—which may require modern standards like HTML5 and CSS3—and older Web apps and services, designed for older versions of Internet Explorer,” the add. “Legacy apps often represent a significant investment and have long, multi-year lifecycles, effectively making these customers dependent on an older version of Internet Explorer until they can upgrade these Web apps to modern Web standards.”

They note that many businesses are still using Internet Explorer 8, and that IE 11 with Enterprise Mode can provide better backward compatibility. They get into more technical details about how it does this in the post.

You’ll also learn more about the feature from this session from Microsoft’s Build conference called “Better APp Compat with Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11” when it becomes available.

A Windows 8.1 update for iE 11 is available for download, with automatic updates starting April 8th for Windows 7 and 8.1. A Windows Phone 8.1 version was also announced. More on the browser itself here.

Images via Microsoft