# Can I make FireFox like IE in certain situations?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 6, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652 "2005-02-06T14:41:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/1 "2005-02-06T14:41:11Z")
Here’s the deal: I love FireFox. I do. It’s just that, on certain webpages it acts differently from what I’ve come to enjoy from IE. For example, I use Hotmail for email, right? Well, with FireFox, it won’t let me use the “Super-Duper-Fancy-Schmancy” text like IE will, where I can do italics, bold, etc…
And here on the Dope, in FireFox when I hold my mouse over the thread title it only gives me like 5 words of the OP, whereas in IE it gives me an entire paragraph.
So, is there any way to tell FireFox to _act_ like IE only for certain pages?
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/2 "2005-02-06T16:02:01Z")
Firefox does NOT like IE. I made the mistake of also downloading Thunderbird. Once this happened, IE was outnumbered, and Outlook was out of the picture. Firefox lured IE into an ambush , where it was… Decompiled.
It was not pretty. I’m still finding pieces of code everywhere. Because of Thunderbird’s control over outgoing messages, I’ve been unable to report this to the authorities.
Ok, I’ll stop now.
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### Author:  [@GorillaGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaGirl)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/3 "2005-02-06T17:20:25Z")
Well, for thread preview on the SDMB, you can go [here](http://apiro.sakura.ne.jp/xul/_popupalt.html.en#download), to get popup text on mouseover.
As far as the other goes, the best I’ve been able to do is [this](http://ieview.mozdev.org/), to open web pages in IE from Firefox.
Hope that helps.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/4 "2005-02-06T18:07:30Z")
IIRC, MSN specifically checks to see if you are using IE. If you are using any other browser it intentionally gives you a lower quality version of their web pages.
Don’t you just love microsoft?
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### Author:  [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/5 "2005-02-06T18:26:34Z")
yes, you can do all those things, all except smileys. You’ll need to download a 'extension '. I did that and it works fine.
of course FF has other problems that drive me nuts.
[Mozilla forum](http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=210191&highlight=hotmail+italic+extension)
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### Author:  [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/6 "2005-02-06T18:30:34Z")
> [@GorillaGirl](#):
>
> Well, for thread preview on the SDMB, you can go [here](http://apiro.sakura.ne.jp/xul/_popupalt.html.en#download), to get popup text on mouseover.
>
> As far as the other goes, the best I’ve been able to do is [this](http://ieview.mozdev.org/), to open web pages in IE from Firefox.
>
> Hope that helps.
Your first link won’t work for me. Is it mirrored somewhere?
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### Author:  [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/7 "2005-02-06T18:30:59Z")
Gee, **Gabe** , sounds ugly. Are you sure it was an ambush? Maybe IE commited suicide? 😉
I use Firefox and Thunderbird quite happily, and the IEView extension, as suggested by \*\*GorrillaGirl \*\*lets me open pages in IE that refuse to work any other way.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/8 "2005-02-06T19:50:32Z")
Questions with factual answers belong in [**General Questions**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=3).
I’ll move this for you.
**Cajun Man**
for the SDMB
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/9 "2005-02-06T20:29:34Z")
> [@Twoflower](#):
>
> Gee, **Gabe** , sounds ugly. Are you sure it was an ambush? Maybe IE commited suicide? 😉
IE tried when Firefox was released, but it hit a self-referencing error and memory-leaked all over the desktop.
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### Author:  [@GorillaGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaGirl)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/10 "2005-02-07T05:23:54Z")
> [@TJdude825](#):
>
> Your first link won’t work for me. Is it mirrored somewhere?
Oops. [Try it now.](http://piro.sakura.ne.jp/xul/_popupalt.html.en) Geez, I add _one_ little letter to the URL and all of a sudden it won’t work. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-firefox-like-ie-in-certain-situations/288652/11 "2005-02-07T12:43:17Z")
If you suspect that a web site is deliberately short-selling you because you’re not using IE you can get Firefox to impersonate IE.
Got to the Mozilla extension pages and search for User Agent Switcher.
This doesn’t actually change Firefox’s behaviour, but instead it “lies” to the web site, telling it that it’s IE, or whatever. Consequently you need to be careful when you switch it on and off, otherwise it can confuse other sites.