Override intranet compatibility mode IE8

Question

By default IE8 forces intranet websites into compatibility mode. I tried changing the meta header to IE8, but it doesn\'t acknowledge the meta header and just uses the brows

Answer 1

I was able to override compatibility mode by specifying the meta tag as THE FIRST TAG in the head section, not just the first meta tag but as and only as the VERY FIRST TAG.

Thanks to @stefan.s for putting me on to it in your excellent answer. Prior to reading that I had:

THIS DID NOT WORK

moved the link tag out of the way and it worked

THIS WORKS:

So an IE8 client set to use compatibility renders the page as IE8 Standard mode - the content='IE=9' means use the highest standard available up to and including IE9.