Internet Explorer not a Metro application?

When I click onto the Internet Explorer tile on my Windows 8.1 Start screen Windows switches to the Desktop and opens Internet Explorer there as a Desktop application.

Can it really be possible that the Internet Explorer 11 is not a Metro application? Not that I am especially hot about the Start screen with all its tiles but it makes me wonder why the Internet Explorer - in my opinion the most important application for most "normal" Windows users - is not opening as a Metro application.

Is or is not the Internet Explorer a Metro application? If it is, how can I use it as such one?

You have to tell it to run as a Tile, from within the Desktop Version. IE has to be the default Browser. The Setting is in Internet Tools on the "Programs" property sheet:



First you must set IE to Default, then change the settings in this Property Sheet.

The Desktop version is better though, before you change to Tile, go to "Tools->Active X Filtering" and make sure it is shut off, then when you switch to the Tile version, some sites that use Flash and Active X will work, but not all of them, Those only work int the Desktop Version.

Thanks, worked! It was probably different on my computer because I had Firefox set as my default browser.

Now it is possible to have the Internet Explorer open twice - as Metro application and as desktop application. I find that a little weird, especially since the setting "Open Internet Explorer tiles on the desktop" suggests in my understanding that IE would now be always working in Metro mode, even when it gets started from the desktop.

Take my word for it, Desktop it Better. Heh.

If you use Tile Mode, Microsoft dictates to you which Sites with Active X and Flash will be visible. In Desktop Mode, they ALL work.

I prefer Chrome if I want to use a Browser in Tile Mode, it does not seem to have the same limitation.