Coding with Jesse

Stop CSS Background Flickering in Internet Explorer 6

October 18th, 2008

I was once again reminded of an IE6 bug I had forgotten about - background images flashing or flickering when the mouse hovers over them.

So, I went looking for a solution. Here's what I found:

try {
  document.execCommand("BackgroundImageCache", false, true);
} catch(e) {}

Works like a charm. Turns out it's due to the browser not caching the background images. This command turns on background image caching.

Do you think this would be good code to add to the core jQuery library?

About the author

Jesse Skinner Hi, I'm Jesse Skinner. I work with development teams to speed up and stabilize web applications, reduce server costs, fix difficult bugs, modernize legacy applications, and improve developer productivity. I'd love to hear from you and see how I can make your life easier.