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Microsoft releases another new test build of IE 9

Microsoft is making available for download on October 28 another new test build of Internet Explorer 9.
Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor

Microsoft is making available for download on October 28 another new test build of Internet Explorer 9.

The IE 9 Platform Preview 6 build is available for download from Microsoft's IETestDrive site. The latest build "reflects developer feedback and delivers better performance as well as more standards support, like CSS3’s 2D transforms," according to the company. Microsoft also has added some new demos and test cases to its Test Drive site.

Microsoft announced the availability of the newest IE 9 test build during the opening day keynote of the company's two-day Professional Developers Conference, which is happening on the Redmond campus of the company.

Microsoft execs said today that there have been 10 million downloads of the IE 9 beta, which the company made available in mid-September.

Microsoft officials still aren't sharing a ship-date target for IE 9. In a new blog post on the company's IE Blog, execs did say that the IE9 Release Candidate will be following the sixth platform preview. (I'm assuming this means the next test build released will be the IE 9 RC, but I am not 100 percent sure of this -- check now. Yes, it does mean exactly that, Updated (again): There may or may not be one more preview before the RC, officials said. A number of Microsoft watchers expect Microsoft to deliver the final version of IE 9 in the first half of 2011.

Microsoft’s goals with IE 9 include making its browser more standards-compliant, less cluttered and faster.

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