14 DAY TRIAL // Strange things happen at Microsoft every now and then, and while it's pretty hard to find a reason for each of them, they're still surprising to say the least.
Case in point, Internet Explorer 11 and the official download link. Whenever you attempt to download Internet Explorer 11 on a computer that's already running this particular browser version, you get an awkward error telling you that “Internet Explorer 11 is not compatible with your system.”
What's worse, if you're trying to download Internet Explorer 11 with Internet Explorer 11 from an operating system that comes with Internet Explorer 11, you're still told that Internet Explorer 11 is not compatible with your system.
As weird as this might sound, the error is displayed on Windows 8.1, the OS version that comes with IE11 as the default browser. On Windows 10, everything seems to be working just fine, no matter the browser used for download.
Obviously, this isn't quite a critical error and there are ways to bypass it, but it's still strange to be blocked from downloading the latest version of Microsoft's operating system because you're already running it.
And by the way, for those wondering why you would need to download Internet Explorer 11 since you already have it, here are a few reasons: for backups, for network computers with no Internet access, for PCs where the browser is experiencing issues and needs to be reinstalled, for system admins, or for updates from an older version.
Now go try download Internet Explorer 11 with Internet Explorer 11. This will be fun.