Internet Explorer 9 Release Coming Soon: See What's New

Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 9 will be available for download Monday, March 14 starting at 9PM PT.

The revamped browser, which received a major makeover, has been available in beta for several months and offers new features such as the ability to "pin" favorite pages to the Windows 7 Taskbar. Microsoft also claims that IE9 is much faster than the previous version of the browser.

The launch of Internet Explorer 9 has been called the "most ambitious browser release Microsoft has ever undertaken,": not only has Microsoft significantly streamlined its browser, but the latest version is landing in an increasingly-competitive environment in which other browsers, like Firefox and Chrome, which have snapped up share from Microsoft.

Will Internet Explorer 9 be a competitive product? Take a look at screenshots of Internet Explorer 9 below, then see what critics said about IE9 beta here.

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Comments

[LHorton]

01:43 PM on 03/19/2011

I installed IE9, and now I can't view this page with it, or any other part of HuffPo. HuffPo makes IE9 "stop working" instantly, every time. Facebook also does the same thing. I'm going to uninstall and reinstall IE8 I guess...

[GreenAtlanta]

04:58 PM on 03/17/2011

They have freshwater bettas swimming in a saltwater reef.

[onejamesp2]

03:20 PM on 03/17/2011

IVE HAD IE 9 FOR A FEW MONTHS AND NO ...IT STILL SUCKS SO I QUIT USING IT. FOXFIRE IS STILL THE BEST

[Jaskoen]

03:37 PM on 03/17/2011

Your caps lock fail and "Foxfire" do not inspire confidence in your opinion.

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

04:18 PM on 03/17/2011

Au contraire, I LOVE james caps. They indicate a stress and importance, and
committment. Also, the inversion of firefox to foxfire is charming and if truth
be told most readers would never even notice it. IF you came an actual hand written text by Shakespeare, say a Sonnet, such trivial would not matter. What does matter here is the point...............when the MILLIONS OF XP USERS hear that ie9 sucks from
those who have tried it there is less and less reason to take a day off upgrading................FOR WHAT? the grass is greeeneeeeerrrrrr syndrome
is so HUMAN. EVERYONE knows it a in't necessarily so. NOT AT ALL

[Matt Raven]

02:51 PM on 03/17/2011

It looks exactly like Chrome. I think I will just stick with Chrome, thankyouverymuch.

[stmpoodle]

04:12 AM on 05/06/2011

Matt, Chrome brought in professionals from Firefox to start it up, plus they made it look a lot like some things in Opera. They all have similarities to me the same as airplanes.

[SaneThoughts]

02:02 PM on 03/17/2011

How does a fish tank help me get information from the Internet? Tried IE9. Nope. Went to Firefox 4 which is a better browser. More useable than IE9. Must be the difference between a commercial product and an open source product. Firefox is a best of category product and IE9 is a necessary evil for Microsoft. At least, they are not Apple.

[jasonedward]

05:34 PM on 03/17/2011

Fish tank doesn't help you get information. It helps you understand how hardware accelerated graphics can improve your browsing/watching experience... and nothing more.

[SaneThoughts]

01:13 PM on 03/19/2011

Missed my point by a mile.

[French Toast]

12:29 PM on 03/17/2011

I love how Firefox drinks their milkshake without really even trying.

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

11:08 AM on 03/17/2011

It is clearly time for the xp users of the world to all SWITCH to FIREFOX and thereby let MS KNOW they are not going to take it anymore. Being tossed into the garbage can is not acceptable. Xp is still alive and needs a new browser so THE ROAD TO FIREFOX SEEMS THE BEST ONE TO TAKE as its a light learning curve................bye bye MS

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

12:02 PM on 03/17/2011

AS the xp users of the world shift to Firefox or Chrome or Opera Microsoft will no longer be
a PORTAL TO HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS, and thus ALL THEIR hard work about BING
WILL HAVE BEEN IN VAIN. EXPLORERGATE IS CLEARLY AT HAND.....

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

12:26 PM on 03/17/2011

McCracken's review in TIME pinned above is LUDICROUS. The failure to grasp
how MS depends on explorer to retain its PORTALSHIP is at the heart of the matter,
and the failure to grasp EXPLORERGATE an incredible FAILURE OF journalistic
objectivity.....writing as if xp users around the world were NOTHING AT ALL. Time Warner can surely do better than that.............a review which blathers on about nothing at all.......................hyping APPLE LAPTOPS.....WHEN THE ISSUE
IS EXPLORERGATE. REMINDS me of how CNN IGNORED ANTENNAGATE.....

[mamacat]

08:32 PM on 03/16/2011

I checked out the Apple store a few weeks ago. Their cheapest Mac is about the same price as a moderately priced PC. I think the next time that I need a computer I will try something from Apple.

[anthonyparker80]

05:08 PM on 03/16/2011

Funny how Chrome has been in beta for 11 builds, there has never been an official release.

As for extensions. ....its a good thing MS has shied away from them, Firefox doesn't have the Flash problem fixed yet, the less it does the better...it supposed to be a browser, not a full on operating system

[pfenixfire]

11:06 AM on 03/17/2011

Chrome is not still in beta.

I think you may have subscribed to the "beta channel" in which each time a beta graduates to an official release you then get the next beta build. Currently the official release is version 10 and the current beta is 11.

[XM202]

03:39 PM on 03/16/2011

IE9 is pretty incredible. It's faster than both FireFox 4 Rc, and Chrome Dev Builds.

The GPU acceleration really is fantastic. Chrome isnt even close to this kind of performance. IE9 out performs both browers in javascript tests. Frankly IE9 is a huge improvement, and without a doubt the most advanced web rendering engine out there.

IE9 still needs a few things though. Extensions will be a huge problem for IE9. Microsoft's extension website looks pathetic and its as if they arent taking this seriously. All one needs to do is look at Mozilla and Google's offerings and see how focused they are around the extension community. Microsoft's extension site looks like they dont care at all.

IE9 has a few hiccups. Occasionally you will hit a page that wont want to work well. This is rare but I've seen it happen, even over at Gawker, IE9 complains about their site having some incompatibilities.

Overall though... IE9 is an AMAZING accomplishment. Firefox 4 RC1 is right behind it in performance and then comes chrome, which lacks functioning GPU acceleration.

Check out IE9. If you have windows 7 and a good GPU... there is nothing that comes close to it performance wise. You may want some features or workflows found in firefox or chrome, but IE9 outperforms them all.

[jasonedward]

05:36 PM on 03/17/2011

Thanks for actually providing hands-on experience and input w/ ie9 rather than the drivel from others who draw conclusions w/o even knowing anything about it.

[KarateKid]

02:57 PM on 03/16/2011

Yawn. I have Windows 7 on my laptop and I will NOT be upgrading. I prefer Firefox and Chrome. IE 8 was annoyingly temperamental so I don't use it, nor will I use IE9.

[anthonyparker80]

10:29 AM on 03/16/2011

I find it interesting that when MS releases a new product, it is buried at the bottom of the page, and HP has talked weeks about whether or not Apple will release a white Iphone....

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

10:45 AM on 03/16/2011

THERE is no question whatsoever that HP totally gonzo over Apple and Facebook, reporting on
the CEOs when they wake up and when they go to sleep, and all events in between. In this context MS runs a poor forth, after Google at 3rd. But in reality a huge amount of number one and number two is NEGATIVE, often embarassingly so. Do you recall the case of the lost iphone prototype and the gestapoification of the AMERICAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM which nullifed
the for the sake of JOBS EGO the essential principal of western criminal law....mens rea.
Or the constant disaster that is facebook's privacy policy, reminiscent of following THE KING WITH NO CLOTHES FOR EVERYONE BUT HIMSELF.
in that light, google and ms get hit often as well. a little more balance and shift toward them is in order. after all, its A ROGUES GALLERY of liars, thieves, and selfish human being raking in the billions from their worldwide DOMINION. hp is just one window into it.

[anthonyparker80]

01:01 PM on 03/16/2011

yep

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

10:13 AM on 03/16/2011

The very idea of having to upgrade to Win7 from XP in order to draw on the benefits of ie9
is so absurd as make the world's computers all laugh out loud at the sheer audacity of MS's latest gesture. It reminds me of the now classical Antennaegate of iphone4 where a major corporation engages in pulling the wool over the eyes of its long term customers, as if they were sheep being shoved into a truck for their final contribution to keeping the business going. ie9 is clearly that...................DOWNLOAD THE BROWSER BUT PAY FOR WIN7 with your hard earned cash you could spend on other things like OMEGA3 or a ticket to the MORMON
theatrical opening on BROADWAY. MICROSOFT IN ESSENCE NO LONGER HAS A FREE
BROWSER...........................PAY TO PLAY. THE STOCK OF MICROSOFT DEPENDS ON IT.

[Wisdomfromthedeep]

10:26 AM on 03/16/2011

In point of fact Microsoft here in not allowing ie9 to run on xp3 is making a horrendous marketing decision which in the end will backfire on them, something they can add to their long list of FAILURE TO GRASP REALITY. SURELY, THE tens of millions of xp people are going to be totally turned off by this a gradually keep their xp and migrate to FF or CHROME, and once they do NEVER RETURN TO EXPLORED......never...............
..........................................................the BOARD OF DIRECTOR OF MICROSOFT should try to get their head around this MARKETING ERROR AS IT WILL
COST THEM MORE CUSTOMERS THAN THERE ARE PIGEONS IN THE WORLD

[Rhancheck]

10:37 AM on 03/16/2011

XP is also what 10 years old now? There's fewer ppl that keep a car for 10 years

[MaxPowerXP]

11:30 AM on 03/16/2011

Eagerly awaiting your screams of outrage because the latest version of Safari won't run on System 9.

There are very real architectural differences between XP and 7; until you know what you're talking about, quit whining.

[DRaymond]

04:50 PM on 03/16/2011

If you are still running XP you have far bigger worries than whether or not to upgrade to ie9.  XP's outdated security model to start with.
 
"But my XP system does everything I need it to".  Well fine, I am sure Office XP did everything you needed it to and ie5 did too.  Stick with them.
 
At some point every technology company has to cut loose the old stuff in order to fully take advantage of the new.

[bmwracer]

09:51 AM on 03/16/2011

I dumped IE years ago for Firefox and haven't looked back.

[MaxPowerXP]

11:30 AM on 03/16/2011

So did I. Then I dumped Firefox for being slow, bloated, buggy, and prone to crashes.

[XM202]

03:55 PM on 03/16/2011

Firefox 4 RC1 has actually solved the major problems with previous versions of Firefox. They finally solved their huge memory leak problem that people associated with "bloat" and crashes.

Firefox 4 RC1 is the best browser overall. IE9 is faster thanks to GPU acceleration. Firefox4 RC1 has GPU acceleration in it as well, although it still kind of a work in progress and doesnt perform as well as IE9, but its close. Chrome on the other hand is very behind in this area. They've only recently began to dev GPU acceleration and its for limited html 5 canvas features. Chrome really is looking slow these days.

Overall I would say Firefox 4 RC1 is the best browser overall for speed and features. IE9 is the best for speed.