Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate: what's new, what's changed

by Ed Bott  |  February 10, 2011 8:48am PST  |  Image 1 of 15

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IE9 Release Candidate version details

Click Settings, About Internet Explorer to see this version information.

For a detailed look at Microsoft's new browser, read IE9 Release Candidate review: will Microsoft's big browser bet pay off?

Plus, read the FAQ about how to install, uninstall, and tweak the IE9 RC.

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RE: Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate: what's new, what's changed
abhisheksrivastava3@... 4th Mar 2011
@i2fun@... Are u a quality engineer working on Chrome at Google and monitoring such forum is aprt of ur job description ?

Waise honestly speaking I did liked chrome initially ... but nothing is forever and competition is Good . You cant discredit the work done by MS folks too..
@russshoe@...

You must work for Microsoft. ;0)
@Smart_Neuron
And you must not work...
@russshoe@... Perhaps you should marry it!
Nyuk, nyuk!
@Roc Riz

Now ladies...
@russshoe@... I also prefer IE against Firefox and Chrome
@russshoe@... I love it, too.

This is the fastest web browser currently available, as confirmed by Facebook's new test suite.
@russshoe@... They copied Chrome interface, but couldn't copy Chrome speed. Chrome is more responsive, faster and less buggy. Let's wait to see if when IE9 is stable it will get closer.
@BioNerd To be fair, Chrome wasn't totally original in its interface. Lets not forget that.
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It's IE
leskern 10th Feb 2011
PBBBBBTTT.....
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It surely looks impressive ...
abhisheksrivastava3@... 10th Feb 2011
I might switch back to IE ... and get rid of these stupid chrome crashes which have increased a lot these days ...
@abhisheksrivastava3@... Agreed. I really wanna know why Chrome is crashing so much these days. That s**t was really cool until they made it almost a Firefox clone. =P
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chrome crashes
david08048 10th Feb 2011
@Nevellin You may be getting automatic beta releases. This is an option to only get upgrade for major releases.

Personally, I use Firefox. wink
@abhisheksrivastava3@... I had switched from Firefox to Chrome, and now to the IE9 Beta. Chrome just reads less pages correctly.
@abhisheksrivastava3@... You must not be running the latest Chrome Browser. Try downloading the Beta and FYI.... Chrome is the only Browser that immediately restores a crashed tab, leaving the Browser Window OPEN. For the other browsers, a crashed tab means a crashed window and a crashed browser. Get your thinking cap oiled and greased to come out with a better lie.... I mean excuse! haha.... lol.....

@Nevelin Beware!!! .....you have zero geek appeal and maybe a brain that can't decipher how to press 'Control Alt Delete' at the same time. To see that unlike any other browser, Chrome runs each tab or instance in it's own process. Try your bogus attacks on Grandma's or Blondes.... er maybe you are a blonde!?! wink

@experiment627... Reads less pages correctly? What? I think you need really check out what all the competition has to offer and why IE is still declining in usage Worldwide! The only browser with significant gains is Chrome and the reason is obvious. It's just plain FASTER! ....and the features in the Beta (which are more and better than IE9 RC) are amazing. We now have the first Browser App Store enabling features you can't get anywhere else. It now has the fastest accelerated rendering engine on the Planet. Pages don't scroll render or blotch to load, most everything w/ heavy traffic, is being stored up on Instant Servers (like previews on Google Search). So windows (tabs) POP UP Instantly!

Try that on any other browser..... do your own Speed Test to see the difference. And Google Search is so fast...... Microsoft has been stealing it. Along with Google Earth Maps!
@i2fun@...

WoW. Desperate much? Keep trying to prove how an advertising company produces better software than the main software developer on the planet - apparently without any evidence at all.

IE9 has set the new standard, Google may get there, but wishing doesn't make it so wink
BTW..... @ALL.... IE9 also claims to be running a new acceleration engine for 3D, etc. But..... like everything else at Microsoft (including some fake excuse for brains in blondes like Balmer!?! ...and secretary boob implants, it's all FAKE! ;)

It's fake 3D, like old games in scrollers on consoles windows XP. It's like Wista used to be and Windows7 still has some leftovers of because it's not a true live action 3D experience. They had to steal the transparency code from OpenGL (ok bought it, but stealing it is the truth.

But no problem, a group of the top Corporations in the world (IBM, Intel, Apple, Nvidia, ATI/AMD, Sony, Toshiba, Google, etc) took over OpenGL (Khronos Group, look it up) and now we have OpenGL ES 2.0 on the largest market of mobile devices on the planet (makes PC Windows installs pale by comparison). That my square headed fools is what is powering Chrome's Browser, as well as Sony PS3 (42 Million) and Nintendo Wii (84 Million). Making OpenGL the most widely distributed set of API's on the Planet! grin
@i2fun@... I love Chrome and use it primarily. And it is set to automatically update.
HOWEVER.
I still run into web pages that only FF or IE will display correctly way more than I like. Between those two, IE seems to work best across all websites. I have preferred Chrome due to its speed and security. I suspect Chrome will still be more secure than IE9. So I will probably use Chrome first and then use IE if I run into problems. Which is my current practice. I seldom use FF anymore.

Chrome does crash, not a lot but it does. More so in my opinion than IE. My family did not like FF. But they have embraced Chrome. It's simple and clean uncluttered interface appeals to them. So I'm no fanboy, I use Chrome primarily but it does have wrinkles.

Your other claims are just bogus. Microsoft uses a totally different rendering and javascript engine.

And for now. IE9 is the most standards compliant if that means anything to you. So "they's advantages an' dis-advantages ta each"
@DevGuy_z
When CrApple used OpenGL coupled with some KDE think tank Devs to create OS-X's Quartz Extreme desktop, that was the first truly hardware accelerated desktop (circa 2003. Microsoft also said they were working on 3D Desktop acceleration around then. But nothing materialized from their promises until Vista was finally released. At first using some fake animations w/o true transparency, that at the time was only being done on OpenGL. Even Linux had a fully hardware accelerated desktop by late 2005 before Microsoft.

It all boils down to POV (point of view) calculation differences of DirectX as opposed to OpenGL. OpenGL is older than DirectX and was developed mainly for the Graphics industry and is what is still used today industry wide. Microsoft never challenged it's dominance in this field. DirectX's main development purpose was GAMES! ....NOT DESKTOPS and certainly NOT the COMMERCIAL GRAPHICS PRODUCTION INDUSTRY, such as film animation, photo manipulation and creation. Here it's still OpenGL!

DirectX uses calculation intensive PoV of calculating everything in the world around it constantly in 3D, while it all revolves around it's own PoV. Whereas OpenGL has always only calculated it's PoV as it revolves around it's environment. Only calculating what's directly in front it. Consequently OpenGL has far superior efficiency and performs less far less GPU intensive calculations than DirectX! ....it's that efficiency and speed that was completely rewritten in 2005-2006 to form the basis of OpenGL ES for Mobiles and what will be running on Chrome OS and is now inside Chrome Browser (WebGL uses this) that makes 3D CSS and 3D content pages POP Open in the blink of an eye. It is the main reason OpenGL ES 2.0 is the future of the web today!

@tonymcs New Standard??? haha.... IE is still a joke as far as standards, speed and 3D CSS goes today!!!
W3C Standards? haha.... you need to visit these pages and wiki to brush up on Browser Wars. Here's one page;
http://www.quirksmode.org/css/quirksmode.html
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol4/html_no22.htm

But it still doesn't have all the truth about the W3C and Browser Wars. Mainly that the original XHTML engine had been written by open source engineers. So Microsoft naturally bristled at using it and developed their own. The W3C Group had some engineers working on it and it became KHTML engine for their Konqueror Browser. It along with Opera (at the time), were the only fully Standards based browsers. Consequently pages coded in Microsoft's butchered HTML and not tagged according to W3C Standards would fail to load on anything else and break the browser (still happening today).

This was also part of the Microsoft Anti-Trust lawsuit and why they were forced to switch to a dual mode in 2000-2001 with IE6. Pages developed under the Quirks Mode only (IE Classic butchered design) were not being loaded properly in browsers like Opera, Mozilla (only fully Standards based browsers other than KDE's Konqueror browser. Webkit was an open source effort by CrApple to use KDE's Konqueror KHTML Standards based engine. It's now the basis of Opera, Safari and Chrome.

So the old headaches first started by Microsoft being the only rogue member of W3C Standards Group has been giving people headaches ever since. Until all the content, only using Quirks Mode (or MS IE Classic CSS rendering) is gone, you'll continue to have problems in other browsers on these old antiquated deliberately tweaked for IE pages. After 10yrs we still have the Classic headaches from IE6 and before's chopped and formed fast food browsers from the War Era! lol.....
@i2fun@... "Chrome is the only Browser that immediately restores a crashed tab, leaving the Browser Window OPEN. For the other browsers, a crashed tab means a crashed window and a crashed browser"

I think not. IE9 has been 'restoring' tabs for some time now.
@tonymcs@... The 'advertising company' you refer has set a new standard speed for browsers with V8 and restarted the browser wars with Chrome... we would still have IE6 if Chrome didn't exist.

Also, they are know for producing quality software not only for desktop (Chrome, Picasa, Google Talk) but also for web and mobile. They produce some of the most popular web apps in the world (GMail, Maps, Apps etc) and several of the most popular mobile apps in two of the most popular mobile OS'es (iOS and Android).

And oh, they also make the #1 mobile OS in the world...
@i2fun@... IE 9 Beta also restored tabs automatically. It also runs tabs as their own instance, and as for speed...sometimes Chrome isn't king. Not that they aren't similar, but keep in mind that more and more the different lead browsers will become the same.
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@i2fun@... Are u a quality engineer working on Chrome at Google and monitoring such forum is aprt of ur job description ?

Waise honestly speaking I did liked chrome initially ... but nothing is forever and competition is Good . You cant discredit the work done by MS folks too..
@abhisheksrivastava3@...

mmmm...my chrome doesn't crash?? Though I think IE from the Microsoft collective will not be the answer. As Bush used to say, " fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again."
Take your time, get it right. Fix the hardware exelleration to work the H264 thing RIGHT with nVidia Cuda. Make my Fermi more kewli.
Looks like they are growing to copy Chrome's look
I hope they implemented some of the functionality.
Heck they ripped netscape's tabs didn't they?
http://truxtertech.com
@TruXter I think tabs came from Opera.
@TruXter

what doesn't the collective assimilate? Originality and creativity not expected.
I think the significant difference between IE8 and IE9 is that IE9 has not gone belly-up since I have been using the beta version. I had switched to FireFox when only the IE8 was available because of the problem with IE8. I have been using the beta version of both browsers. I ran into a glitch with FireFox beta 8 or/and 9. Terminating FireFox browser would still leave a version in memory. On reload, I would get the message that Firebox was still running and would not reload. I had to go to Task Manager and kill FireFox from the processes menu area. It did not show in the application area of the Task Manager. I spelled this problem out during their surveys regarding beta testing of Firefox.
Not too shabby I'd say. Looking forward to seeing the final release. The tracking features are pretty much an ethical must for any browser coming out today. If not implemented fully in other browsers I may re-consider IE on my Windows computers.
To me, GUI looks like old Opera browser.
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I don't see it...
Smart_Neuron 10th Feb 2011
I'm a bit confused...

Toolbar?
Links?

Perhaps a video of the RC would be nice!
As soon as the Linux version is released, I'll consider it. Until then, seeing as I use both Windows and Linux devices, I'll probably be sticking with Chrome for now.
This presentation seems focused on security concerns and minor navigation functions. It misses the "here's why this software is fun and feels good" points. Do you just take it for granted we will use their browser? Or is there really nothing good about it?
Yawn, I don't care. Microsoft had all the money in the world to actually be a leader and maintain a pace of innovation in this space to bring value to customers.

Their hand being forced by all the creative initiative and leadership by Opera, Firefox, Chrome and others who've together been eating Microsoft's lunch, Microsoft is doing it now, kicking and screaming. Should it really have taken over ten years for MSIE to begin to appear to support a weak interpretation of tabbed browsing, that Opera has had since 1995? Sheesh.

There are plenty of browsers out there today that render MSIE largely moot and, as far as my screens are concerned, it'll stay that way whenever I have a choice.

http://nontechietalk.blogspot.com/search/label/Ubuntu
Can't use it. Many of the site I go to require Flash.
@doc4wos2
Microsoft supports Flash - they are not Apple!!
Are you sure you're using IE9 and not Safari? happy
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Contributr
Huh?
Ed Bott 11th Feb 2011
@doc4wos2

It supports Flash. What are you talking about?
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Competition
INGOTIAN 10th Feb 2011
Isn't it amazing what a bit of competition will do. Compare to that heap of dung IE 6 happy
Your comparison not true about the space saving and cloning. When both of them not minimized and in normal window size both of them have same view but when maximized yes it is Chrome the winner of space saver, also chrome is more simplified and easy to use interface and a clean and minimalistic design aided to user enjoy browsing web. IE9 even IE10! or IE11! so more up to IE200!, I think all of them will not be good, ever, never!
@e107365

Wow... that made no sense at all.
I use Chrome but have encountered crashes when trying to print, mostly coupons. When that happens I open up IE and print from that without a problem.
Chrome is an excellent browser and I haven't had any crashes that I can remember (those who do - try updating your video drivers). However I've put Chrome on the backburner for the time being because proper color profile support is lacking which causes some pictures to look sligthty under saturated. Until they fix that, I'll be sticking with ie9 or firefox 4.
I use IE, FF and Chrome, FF as first choice but Chrome for online banking and purchasing however Chrome fails to display far too many pages that FF and IE have no problem with.
What I would like is a BROWSER, any BROWSER that displays all pages correctly, displays the pages quickly, and does NOT crash. If there one I haven't found it. The first one that does that gets my vote and maybe even my money, because I would actually pay for one. Chrome, Firefox, and IE6-IE9 beta all have had problems, and the faster the browsers become the less stable they become and the less compatible they become. IMPO, they should all work on stability and compatibility, NOT speed.
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What's really new:
jetsethi 13th Feb 2011
Aside from being more modern, and following standards (relative to other browsers) I see that many of the new features are privacy related. I've been using the IE9 Beta for some time, and the slight tweaks between it and the RC are welcome. Little visual changes, and improved performance are in there as well. Although I doubt this will allow IE to regain the market share it once had, I think this will help in stopping the loss.
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PASSWORD FOR IE9?
brettze 18th Feb 2011
WHY IS I EXPLORER WITHOUT PASSWORDS??? i WANT PASSWORD SO THAT I CAN STORE MY FAVORITES AND ADDRESS BOOK IN THE CLOUD FOR EVERYWHERE I GO !!! I NEVER LIKE IMPORTING OR EXPORTING MY FAVORITES AND ADDY BOOKS AT ALL. THIS IS WHY I FAVOR AOL AS MY FAVORITES AND ADDY BOOK ALWAYS GOES WITH ME EVERYWHERE I INSTALL AOL SOFTWARE BECUAE MY VITALS IS STORED IN THE CLOUD.. AOL WAS THE FIRST IN THE CLOUD !!!
I am having problems converting web pages to PDF using acrobat.
Anyone elase had this issue'

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ie8 fix

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