Disable Minimal Download Strategy in SharePoint 2013.  This will update the current farm “MDSFeature” XML to disable for all newly created site collections and child webs.   If you need to support IE8 and older browsers this can be helpful.  The feature GUID technically remains active but won’t do anything.  After desktops upgrade (IE11/Win8) then this change can be reversed with a simple file copy “ORIG” back to “XML.”     Hope this helps!   

PowerShell – Disable MDS

# run once per farm
# unregister Feature definition from ConfigDB
Uninstall-SPFeature MDSFeature -Force -Confirm:$false
# backup current Feature XML
$path = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MDSFeature\feature.xml"
Copy-Item $path "$path-orig"
# modify Feature XML to suppress DLL assembly detail  (still registered, but unable to run)
 $x = Get-Content $path
$x.Feature.RemoveAttribute("ReceiverClass")
$x.Feature.RemoveAttribute("ReceiverAssembly")
$x.Save($path)
# register Feature to ConfigDB
Install-SPFeature MDSFeature

PowerShell – Enable MDS

# run once per farm
# unregister Feature definition from ConfigDB
Uninstall-SPFeature MDSFeature -Force -Confirm:$false
# backup current Feature XML
$path = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MDSFeature\feature.xml"
Copy-Item "$path-orig" $path -Force -Confirm:$false
# register Feature to ConfigDB
Install-SPFeature MDSFeature

I looked at many options but none were are simple as the above “knee cap” to simply void the DLL reference and keep the feature GUID active but with no functional user impact.   So if you must support SP2013 on IE8 give the above a try.

• Task Scheduler job to run “Disable-SPFeature” on a regular basis
• Manually ask users to disable (hard to do if you can’t navigate Site Settings)
• Feature Stapling – MDS doesn’t use stapling and I couldn’t find any reference beyond “MDSFeature\feature.xml”
• Uninstall SPFeature  (then get error – can’t create sites/webs)

References

• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dn456544.aspx
• http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/95228/how-to-turn-off-mds-on-all-site-collections-and-sites/
• http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/93676/turn-off-minimal-download-strategy-when-stapling-mysite
• https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/b241a7b6-b251-4881-867e-1bac7d1632cb/disabling-minimal-download-strategy-from-powershell-but-still-shows-feature-as-activated?forum=sharepointgeneral