When IE11 was released for Windows 7, I jumped right on it, just to soon realize that IE did not work with many sites anymore. No worry, this happened with IE10, so I looked for the "torn page" icon in the address bar, so I could toggle between native and comp modes, but alas, the button wasn't there. I then added the sites using the Compatibility View Settings, and named sites started working again.
A little more googling, err, binging, revealed that this was a design decision by the IE team.
1. The assertion from the team is, that the compatibility toggle only shows up in the address bar if the page needs it. Therefore, if the icon does not show up, there is no problem with the page, and you don't need it. The extent of hubris of statement alone is astounding. Has anyone on that team browsed any site other than Microsoft's own? I can't begin to name the sites I had to add manually to Compatibility View Settings, all of which according to Microsoft should work just fine because, hey, the button didn't show up. Problems range from pages not loading at all (blank pages or mostly blank pages) to pages loading just fine, but unable to login. One example is PMI.org, not some obscure backwards hobby page, but an international organization which uses Microsoft's own asp.net. I can click on the login button until I'm blue in the face, but nothing happens until I manually add the page to the ever growing list of incompatible pages that according to Microsoft aren't.
2. Which brings me to the second issue, which is the volatile nature of the Compatibility View Settings: all added sites disappear as soon as you clean browsing history. That's right, after all, these sites couldn't have been incompatible anyway since the button didn't show up, so we'll just wipe them off the list as soon as you clear history. And of course, there is no more "display all sites in compatibility view" option, only for intranet sites.
So, no matter how much I like IE 11 (it appears to load faster, I like the revamped developer tools, etc. etc.), after only a couple of weeks, I'm ripping it out of my system. What a shame. Because of the arrogance of a few, this thing is going to die, which I believe is only a matter of time until users and website owners realize that the problem isn't with the site, but the browser. Unless of course the team swallows their pride and adds the toggle back in, allows per-site compatibility sittings to persist, and adds the "display all sites in compatibility view" option back in.
Bye-bye IE11, we barely knew you. Come back when you're grown up.
Having some fun with this post, but I'm really frustrated and annoyed.