An Internet Explorer shell is computer software (in most cases, a web browser) that uses the Trident (layout engine) layout engine of Internet Explorer. Although the term Trident shell is probably more accurate for describing these applications, including Internet Explorer itself, the term Internet Explorer shell or IE shell is in common parlance.

Some of the more popular Internet Explorer shells include the following: *Avant Browser *AOL Explorer *Crazy Browser *IRider *Maxthon *NetCaptor *Netscape Browser 8.x (uses both Trident and Gecko (layout engine)) *[http://www.getfoxie.com/ Foxie] *[http://df2k.5gigs.com/Programs/VB/MinBrowser.zip MinBrowser] *[http://df2k.5gigs.com/Programs/VB/WebBrowser.zip DF2K Browser] *Master of the Lord Browser

These applications supplement some of Internet Explorer s usual user interface components for browsing, adding features such as popup blocking and tabbed browsing.

= Non-browser shells =

Other applications that aren t primarily for web browsing, such as Intuit, Inc. s Quicken and QuickBooks, AOL, Winamp, and RealPlayer, use the rendering engine to provide a limited-functionality mini browser within their own user interfaces.

On Windows, components of Internet Explorer are also used in Windows Explorer, the operating system shell that provides the default file system browsing and desktop services. For example, folder views in Windows Explorer on Windows XP utilize IE s DHTML processing abilities; they are essentially little web pages. Active Desktop technology is another example.

The Trident engine is also used to render HTML portions of email messages in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express email clients. This integration, while convenient, is an often-exploited back door, since the Internet Explorer components make available more functionality to the HTML code than some feel should be permitted in the context of email messages, and Outlook and Outlook Express have, historically, not done enough to prevent malicious code from taking advantage of that functionality. The latest updates for Outlook Express, which require Windows XP and are distributed with Service Pack 2, are intended to improve this situation. Outlook 2003 already includes many of the updates.

While all of these programs can customize Internet Explorer s user interface and extend the feature set, they cannot modify the rendering engine, and are therefore subject to many of the same benefits and vulnerabilities of IE, including security holes and issues with rendering.

=Shell-like extensions to IE=

In addition to programs using Internet Explorers rendering engine, there are also programs that add features to Internet Explorer. The methods they use to add features can blur the distinction between a shell, plug-in, or toolbar. Examples include the following:

*IEWatch [http://www.iewatch.com/], which adds diagnostic panes and menu options for monitoring HTTP traffic *Kimba Kano [http://www.kimbakano.com/], which adds a context menu option to do various kinds of web searches for a currently highlighted term

=See also=