March 17, 2010

Download Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview

It was pretty much expected that Microsoft would be announcing a preview of IE9 at MIX10 and during the Day 2 of MIX10 conference (A Technology event for Web Designers & Developers) at Las Vegas, Microsoft announced the availability of IE9 Platform preview. The IE9 platform preview is a sneak peak to the upcoming version of one of the most popular web –browser, Internet Explorer 9.

Internet Explorer 9 has been designed to help the Web development community create rich, standards-compliant, interoperable Web applications by providing the platform, tools and features they need to build the modern Web. The platform preview has been designed to provide an early access to Internet Explorer 9. This may be assumed as a pre-Beta to the IE9, however Microsoft has planned to release a beta when they feel IE9 has reached in a stable version enough for consumers. 

The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was created to show the Web development community and standards bodies Microsoft’s progress, and outline how the company is working hard to build an interoperable Web platform. In addition, Microsoft wants to give everyone in the Web development community an opportunity to provide feedback on the company’s progress.

However there are a few restrictions or limitations in this version of Web Browser :

  • No end-user navigation features such as the Address Bar are included.
  • There are no tabs in it. You may use multiple instances of IE9 PP to view multiple web pages.
  • Absence of essential SmartScreen security protection or features for privacy protection such as InPrivate Browsing.
  • This browser can not be registered as your default web browser on your system.
  • Neither IE9 PP nor IE9 RTW would support Windows XP

The reason IE9 would not be supporting Windows XP is stated in Frequently Asked Questions which states Internet Explorer 9’s GPU-powered graphics take advantage of new technologies available in Windows 7 and back-ported only to Windows Vista. These technologies depend on advancements in the display driver model introduced first in Windows Vista.

A Few performance upgrades and changes IE9 has over IE8 are Internet Explorer 9 introduces a new scripting engine, internally known as “Chakra, a lot of new HTML5, CSS3, SVG & DOM features.

Download IE9 Platform Preview here : http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/info/ThankYou/Default.html

More Info : IE9 Platform Preview Fact Sheet (March 2010) & IE Blog

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