behave differently, is it a standard? Interoperability means the web “just works” if ($.client.profile().name === 'msie') { var IHateIE = { 'scrollTop': context.$textarea.scrollTop(), 'pos': context.$textarea.textSelection('getCaretPosition', {startAndEnd: true}) }; context.$textarea.data('IHateIE', IHateIE); } For some reason IE seems to be calculating that differently. You might have to put in a special rule for IE there. In Chrome, the error does not occur, the xml is appended successfully and the other methods after these two run as expected. In IE however, a hierarchyRequestError is thrown at the appendChild statement. no matter HOW I passed the ko object to the child window, something got lost. Horrible behavior, IE... Why does the following code throw an 'Unspecified error' (on the appendChild line) in IE11 which I click the button?