IE10 gray square on click in Windows 8

Question

How to disable this horrible design stuff of microsoft programmers? It's happens when I click on links. Another horrible feature is dotted border on input elements. In past, this border disappear by adding outline: none to focus state of inputs.

Answer 1

Try the following meta

<meta name="msapplication-tap-highlight" content="no" /> 

It works for IE10/Windows Phone 8, not sure about Windows 8.

Answer 2

For whatever reason the meta tag didn't work for me on Windows 7 IE10, and I had to set

a:active{
  background: inherit;
}

Answer 3

background: inherit; 

Above does not work if your background color is differently set or has multiple settings.

Below is fail proof.

a:active{
background: none;
}