Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 improves upon Internet Explorer 8 with enhanced speed improvements, security and a whole host of new features such as support for HTML 5, CSS 3 selectors, faster JavaScript, Direct2D and DirectWrite.
Speed tests show that the web browser is several times faster than Internet Explorer 8 - which was a little slow to get started. This brings Internet Explorer 9 up to speed with the likes of Firefox and Google Chrome which are lightning fast.
New features of Internet Explorer 9:
Support for all CSS 3 selectors
Border-radius CSS 3 property
Faster JavaScript
Hardware accelerated rendering using Direct2D and DirectWrite
Supports WOFF
Support for HTML 5 video
Other features:
CSS3
DOM Core Namespaces
DOM Range
DOM L2 Events
DOM L3 Events
HTML5 Selection
XHTML Documents
SVG
MIX10 Preview
At MIX10, the preview for Internet Explorer 9 was shown featuring support for CSS3 and SVG, a new Javascript engine called Chakra, and a score of 55/100 on the Acid3 test.
JavaScript Speed
On comparison, the JavaScript engine of IE9 is almost 8 times faster than IE8! Its even faster than Firefox 3.6 but not quite as fast as Google Chrome 4.
Direct2D
Direct2D is a 2D and vector graphics application programming interface (API) designed by Microsoft and implemented in Windows 7. It offers high quality and fast performance while maintaining interoperability with GDI/GDI+ APIs and Direct3D/DirectDraw APIs. It can take advantage of hardware acceleration through compatible graphics cards
Not tied to any Windows version
Unlike previous versions, Internet Explorer 9 is not tied to any particular version of Windows so you are free to install the Microsoft browser at your discretion. It is supported on Windows Vista and Windows 7 but is not supported on the older operating systems such as Windows XP or Server 2003.
Beta Version
Note: The browser will be in beta until the beginning of 2011. March 2010 - only the platform preview is available at the moment. We will update the download links in due course.
Requires
Windows Vista SP2 (With Platform Upgrade) and Windows 7. IE8 is also required
Download
Price: $0
Size: 15MB
Released: 03/2010
Type: freewareCategory: Web Browsers
OS Support: Windows
Keywords: internet explorer