Less than a year after the development of Internet Explorer 9 began, Microsoft introduced a beta version. Many users may have seen the minimalistic interface in previews, but few expected it to stay the same. Internet Explorer 9 has the most ascetic interface among Microsoft's browsers, but these are not all the changes.

The developers have concentrated on the content, i.e., on displayed web pages. Internet Explorer 9 joined the group of browsers with rapid JavaScript engines, support for hardware acceleration by the GPU, and other "speed features." Moreover, Internet Explorer 9 can work with HTML5, CSS3, Canvas, and SVG. We will tell you more about this browser.

Easy installation

Internet Explorer for Windows has different installers for different platforms. A reboot is required after installation. It is unusual for alternative browsers but quite usual for Internet Explorer. Unlike the Platform Preview version, the beta version is installed instead of Internet Explorer 8 but not together with it. The installation process is easy but takes a lot of time.

Interface

As mentioned above, the new interface is minimalistic and leaves more space for displaying web pages. The navigation and control buttons and the combined address and search bar are located side by side. Microsoft seems to like to experiment with users by changing familiar things. For example, the panel responsible for favorites feeds and history is moved to the right side of the screen. However, you can drag it back.

The zoom button has disappeared from the window. To change the size of the content, you now have to use the hidden menu, the key combination, or the mouse wheel. You cannot restore the "magnifier," although many users would take advantage of such an opportunity.

Tabs can be pulled out of the window as before, but now they can also be dragged into another window. Due to the support for hardware acceleration, dynamic page content (such as video) doesn't stop during drag and drop. However, the developers didn't design a close button on every tab, though all their competitors have this feature.

Various notifications now appear at the bottom of the screen (previously, yellow tabs appeared at the top). This allows you to avoid unpleasant shifting down the page. Moreover, a study by the Internet Explorer development team found that users expect to see notifications at the bottom of the screen.

Pinning sites

Internet Explorer in Windows allows you to drag a web page icon to the taskbar, where it will be pinned as a typical application. The page will get its own unique icon. It is a successful solution for integrating the browser into the operating system.

The site developers used special XML inserts in code before, but now the pinned shortcut also gets its jump lists (Windows 7 jump lists).

When using the pinned links, the browser repaints the window borders with the primary color of the web page. The back and forward buttons get the color of the page icon. However, these colors don't change when you go to another site.

Plugins

Opening tabs in Internet Explorer used to take quite a long time, but they open instantly in Internet Explorer 9. Some plugins can slow down this process. A new performance analysis tool is used to detect them.

The architecture of the plugins has not changed. The existing plugins work correctly, compared to the competitor, Firefox 4, where you need to redo everything.

Download manager

Internet Explorer now has a download manager. You can control the download status of all files, pause and resume the download process, as well as get notifications when the download manager is running in the background. There are three options: the classic "Save" and "Open" and the new "Save and then open" function, so there is no need to make unnecessary gestures.

Performance

Internet Explorer has gotten rid of its slowness. Although Microsoft's browser still lags behind the competition in JavaScript execution, it can no longer be blamed for its slowness.

The performance hasn't just been improved for JavaScript. Direct2D API is used for rendering other elements of web pages (even Flash inserts but only in test mode) with appropriate support from video cards (although this does not apply to older models).

Support for standards

The Internet Explorer browser gets the most unflattering reviews about support for web standards. Microsoft has taken this issue very seriously, so the IE 9 beta rendering engine is not bad now compared to version 8. It supports HTML5, CSS3, Canvas, and SVG. However, it is still quite far from the ideal.

Security

There is an opinion on the Internet that Microsoft's browser is insecure. Version 6 may have been unsure, but version 8 has made an enormous leap forward. Version 9 closes more holes and protects users from rash decisions using the SmartScreen filter. There is also a sandbox for tabs and plugins. IE 9 is similar to Chrome in this aspect. There is an option to recover interrupted processes.

Conclusions

Microsoft has done a great job on Internet Explorer. You can see improvements in ease of use, speed, and support for standards. Among the advantages there are:

• Support for modern web standards;

• Increased performance;

• An ascetic interface that experienced users may enjoy;

• Integration with Windows 7;

• A new download manager;

• Security functions;

• Support for older plugins.

The disadvantages include the following:

• Still insufficient support for web standards;

• An ascetic interface that is unlikely to appeal to newcomers;

• The lack of support for Windows XP;

• Specific problems with the beta version;

• The hardware acceleration does not work with older video cards.