Internet Explorer 10: Preview for Windows 7 released

Because of the hardware acceleration in IE 10, the Aston Martin test will spin smoothly at 60 fps Microsoft has released a preview of its Internet Explorer 10 browser for Windows 7. In a post on the IEBlog, the company says that underneath the surface, this version is equivalent to IE10 for Windows 8, offering the same capabilities and using the same HTML5 engine. The user interface has remained the same, and the Windows 8 UI (previously called "Metro") only shows through in some places, such as the scroll bars. In the Windows 7 version of Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft continues to use the controversial default "do-not-track" (DNT) privacy setting that signals to all sites that the user doesn't wish to be tracked.

Microsoft has also improved the performance of the browser. In tests by The H's associates at heise Developer, Internet Explorer 10 took 183.3 milliseconds to process the SunSpider test suite. This is almost 30 per cent less than its predecessor, which needed 255.4 seconds on the same system. In Microsoft's Fishbowl test, IE10 managed to animate 100 fish at 40 frames per second (fps); the previous version only achieved 7 fps.

Internet Explorer 10 can now handle 3D CSS transformations and transitions, as well as CSS grid and multi-column layouts. Local storage options with IndexedDB and the HTML5 Application Cache are designed to make it easier for developers to write offline-capable applications. An overview of the new IE10 features for developers is available in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10 Guide for Developers.

(crve)