Whether you develop for the web and need to see how your site or web app displays itself in multiple browsers, or you just want to visit a site that requires a particular browser that you don't want to use, you may eventually need to use a browser other than Safari. While most of the web is free to access through any browser you'd like, there are occasionally websites (particularly older ones) that need you to use browsers like Internet Explorer, or worse yet, would like you to be on a Windows PC. Or maybe you'd like to see how your site or web app presents itself in Safari on iPhone or iPad, or Chrome on Windows.
Luckily, Safari on Mac has the answer for you. Safari allows you to masquerade as the user of other browsers and Windows through a tool in its Develop menu: changing the user agent. Changing the user agent tells websites that you're using a browser other than the version of Safari that you're using on your Mac. It can event tell a website that you're running Windows. And while Internet Explorer was removed from the default list of user agents in macOS Catalina, you can still add it as on by changing the user agent string manually.
After the IE 11 has finished loading, search for the Internet Explorer on your Mac. Moreover, from now on, you can enjoy Internet Explorer 11 for Mac, just as if you were running a native Windows OS. We challenge you to tell us if there is even the slightest difference that you can notice between this IE Tech Preview and using an IE version for.
On Windows 10, the most recent version of the browser is Internet Explorer 11. The little blue 'e' that you'll see in your taskbar isn't Explorer though, it's Microsoft Edge, the newest browser from Microsoft that was first released in 2015. Edge is the default browser that will come up when you first use the internet.
Safari for Mac supports the following user agents:
If you search for “download Internet Explorer for Mac” you may find sites that claim to offer it but do not download them as the truth is IE for Mac does not exist anymore. The last version of Internet Explorer that worked on Mac was for OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard which is now obsolete so don’t be fooled by any site that claims you can.
Safari for iPhone
Safari for iPad
Safari for iPod touch
Microsoft Edge
Google Chrome for Mac
Google Chrome for Windows
Firefox for Mac
Firefox for Windows
Keep in mind that, though Safari will appear to be another browser, it won't actually be that browser. Any web app or site that requires, say, Chrome's Blink rendering engine (which Safari doesn't have) won't work properly, even if Safari's user agent is changed to Google Chrome.
Here's how you go about changing the user agent in Safari.
How to access websites in Safari that require a PC or another browser
Open Safari from your Dock or Applications folder.
Click Safari in the Menu bar.
Source: iMore
Click Preferences.
Click Advanced.
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Check the box next to Show Develop menu in the menu bar.
Close the Preferences window. The user agent choices will be grayed out and unselectable if you don't.
Source: iMore
Click Develop.
Hover over User Agent.
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Click on the user agent of the browser you need. If you need to pretend that you're using a PC, choose Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome — Windows, or Firefox — Windows.
Click Other... if you need to enter a custom user string.
Source: iMore
Enter the user agent string for your desired browser/operating system combination.
Click OK. Your page will reload with the appropriate user agent.
Source: iMore
Doing this should get you through a website detection-checker.
Questions?
If you have any questions about masquerading Safari as a Windows web browser, let us know in the comments.
Updated March 2020: Updated through macOS Catalina.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to a previous version of this article.
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