How To Determine the Version of MSXML Used by Internet Explorer

This article provides a sample well-formed XML document in Microsoft Internet Explorer and demonstrates how to use Filemon for Windows to determine the version of MSXML that Internet Explorer is using.

1. Paste the following code into Notepad and save it as Books.xml.

   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   <catalog>
      <book id="bk101">
         <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author>
         <title>XML Developer's Guide</title>
         <genre>Computer</genre>
         <price>44.95</price>
         <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date>
         <description>An in-depth look at creating applications 
         with XML.</description>
      </book>
   </catalog>
   					

2. Download and unzip Filemon (a utility that monitors file activity on the system) from the following Web site:
   Sysinternals
   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx)
3. Run Filemon.exe and note that tracing starts immediately. Click the magnifying glass icon on the toolbar to stop the trace. To clear the display, on the Edit menu, click Clear Display.
4. To start a new Filemon trace, click the magnifying glass icon on the toolbar. In Internet Explorer, open Books.xml and then click the magnifying glass icon again to stop the trace.
5. To determine the version of MSXML that Internet Explorer used, on the Edit menu, click Find. In the Find text box, type MSXML. The first reference to MSXML is highlighted. The path usually points to \Winnt\System32\Msxml#.dll and to Iexplorer.exe, a process that Internet Explorer uses.
6. Double-click the highlighted line of text to open the System32 folder. Right-click Msxml#.dll, click Properties, and click the Version tab. The file version is listed under File Version.

To narrow your Filemon search, you can select and clear monitored drives from the Drives menu. You can also filter output by clicking Filter/Highlight on the Edit menu. The default filter is a wildcard character (*), which displays all file system activity. Replace the wildcard character (*) with MSXML and run the trace.

You can also use other utilities, such as Process Explorer, to monitor the DLLs that are loaded in a process and the resources that these DLLs use.

For more information on XML, see the following Web sites: For additional information about XML, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: