Microsoft has released the final version of its browser, which brings numerous improvements, most notably the significant step forward in performance, improved compatibility with Web standards recent and innovative features hardware acceleration via GPU. A side dish to a series of small new features that promise to further enhance the browsing experience. As with prior versions, users of Windows XP are excluded.
keeping with what announced a few days ago, via a statement published on the official blog of the development team, on the evening of Monday (exactly one year after the submission of the first preview version) Microsoft has made available the final release of Internet Explorer 9 .
This version of the browser will have the daunting task of rehabilitating the eyes of people the name "Internet Explorer", now increasingly linked to the image of the program slow and insecure, and put a stop to steep fall in the number of users increasingly attracted to alternative browsers such as Firefox , Chrome, Opera and Safari.
Internet Explorer 9 RTW (Release To Web , progressive 9.0.8112.16421 ) arrives after a beta version a RC well eight Platform Preview and capitalizes on these compilations as they did prior to shine last year.
Let us see in detail what new features and improvements in this new iteration of the greatest navigator Microsoft brings.
This version of the browser will have the daunting task of rehabilitating the eyes of people the name "Internet Explorer", now increasingly linked to the image of the program slow and insecure, and put a stop to steep fall in the number of users increasingly attracted to alternative browsers such as Firefox , Chrome, Opera and Safari.
Let us see in detail what new features and improvements in this new iteration of the greatest navigator Microsoft brings.
renewed graphical interface and better integration with Windows 7
The first innovation is you notice the new look of the browser , characterized by a very simple and clean style rather similar to that of the more recent incarnations of Chrome, Opera and Firefox.
The company seems to have heeded these criticisms (perarltro shared by many others), it is now possible to move tabs below the address bar, using a special option.
For example, sites can customize the items to be displayed in the jump list, to allow deeper integration with the operating system.
is certainly good, I think the page is too basic and not very configurable than presented by the competitors.
- Address Bar (renamed One Box), which now also allows you to search through a search engine. Default is to use the 'engine Microsoft, Bing , but you can change this setting from the configuration panel.
- Managing notifications now much less intrusive and more carefully in terms of graphics. The new system will show a greater degree the most important notifications and hide after a few seconds and minor. With these (and other) small improvements the notification system is overall more manageable and effective . Nevertheless advise you to wake to the sounds related to notifications , so be sure not to miss any.
- Management Download now entrusted to a download manager simple but quite effective . This component is also integrated with a renewed SmartScreen filter, which checks the downloaded files do not contain malware and the like (We will return to this subject in next page). Among the novel features introduced by this component, we can pause a download and resume it later, and the control of any interruptions, as well as numerous minor improvements.
Even security and stability, already a great improvement in previous version, have undergone further development, although the amount is less than that seen in other areas.
safe mode, InPrivate Browsing and Domain Highlighting supported by a SmartScreen filter from enhanced functionality and a small number of new features that help to increase the level of security against certain specific types of attack. The filter
SmartScreen , introduced for the first time in Internet Explorer 7 as a tool against phishing, is the component that has undergone major changes.
The version included in Internet Explorer 9 not only to analyze the sites you visit and check whether the downloaded files contain malware known, but it also includes a feature analysis based on the reputation downloaded files.
This feature allows the browser to Microsoft not see safety warnings for known file safe (because many users downloaded and / or have a valid digital signature) and to advise in more eye-catching opening files that are potentially hazardous because they are not known or malware.
This could represent a significant step forward than the approach used so far by all browsers, as displays security alerts only when really necessary , thus reducing the disruption to novice users .
functionality in question, off the Beta, is now fully operational and, based on the early test, seems to behave quite well.
For those who want to experiment without risk, Microsoft has developed a microsite to download a file drawn up to take control of SmartScreen filter.
In closing the chapter we find some security safeguards designed to avoid or mitigate the effects of numerous kinds of attacks, including those known as cross-site scripting , and a novel feature to block the loading of ActiveX components potentially dangerous.
In this way, Microsoft promises to be able to decrease your chances of being traced online by the services of advertising.
In this area we find new innovations from the previous release, such as multi-process architecture , automatic recovery in case of crash and isolation of additional components and boards.
The ninth version of the browser Microsoft promises to greatly improve in this area by introducing a number of interesting innovations.
To give an idea of \u200b\u200bhow this tool improves the performance program, Microsoft itself has done to compare the most popular browsers using the SunSpider benchmark , one of the most popular test in this area, and publication of results on a site created ad hoc , where there are also many tests for the new features of the browser.
The results of this test are quite interesting. According to Microsoft, Internet Explorer 9 place it in the first position, even before the 11 samples of Opera and Chrome speed 10, and with a fair degree of advantage over the next 4 Mozilla Firefox.
The improvement over the Beta, who finish in third place behind Chrome, and Opera, can be attributed, according to Microsoft, the long process of refinement that has been done in recent months by analyzing the most popular Web sites and optimizing the engine for manage the most frequent instructions.
This is achieved through support to a broad set of technologies, which include Direct3D, and Direct2D DirectWrite .
One scenario where this approach has major advantages is playback of high definition video , an operation that, thanks to this feature, it should be possible even on netbook and more generally on older computers.
But we must stress that this is not a novelty , since the most recent versions of alternative browsers have started to pursue this path for some time. In this regard Microsoft
said that at the time, the only browser capable of offering full hardware acceleration is your Internet Explorer 9.
At the final release, Microsoft has further work on the operation of hardware acceleration with low-end video cards, they should now ensure better performance.
For the more environmentally conscious is to be noted as Microsoft's browser is now able to automatically reduce energy consumption (and, of course, performance) in case the computer is a notebook unrelated Grid (configurable option from the Control Panel).
close the chapter a long list of performance optimizations included children in various parts of the code, which should further improve the behavior of the browser in several areas.
were verified the time needed to load some of the most popular sites and run the benchmark Peacekeeper , Focused on the graphics performance of the browser.
The results were then compared to the arguments of Opera 11 at the time credited as one of the fastest browser on the square.
The response, although the computer is not very recent and only has a single-core processor , was pretty good. In fact, while the difference between IE and Opera 8 was fairly large, the new browser from Microsoft's heels near the Norwegian fast opponent and is even able to overcome the loading of some sites. As for the benchmark
Peacekeeper, detailing the results obtained by the two browsers is below.
In this test the difference between the two browsers, Opera is increases considerably more than two times faster than Internet Explorer .
Despite this result, the browsing experience provided by Microsoft's browser is still in ordinary use nice and smooth, sometimes even better than that offered by Opera and Firefox.
The result of the work of Redmond can summed up the score to Internet Explorer 9 in Acid3 test , severe test for compatibility with standard web browser.
In this test the browser Microsoft reaches the encouraging results 95/100 that, although not yet at the level of the best competitors is a huge step forward compared to 20/100 the previous version and still a clear demonstration of Microsoft to make a browser that meets the standards promoted by the W3C consortium .
In addition to the above said business card for Internet Explorer Web standards now also includes support for many new features of the emerging HTML5 language, including video tag ( natively only with H.264 and, by installing a compatible decoder , with WebMate ) and audio, Web font, graphics and advanced Canvas and SVG Geolocation.
As the preliminary versions, including the final release is only compatible with Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows 7 and its counterpart Server.
supports both 32-bit platforms, and 64-bit. In particular, the 64-bit package conveys both editions of the browser, so you must also install the 32-bit.
A further confirmation of the growing state of abandonment of this operating system, Windows XP users are excluded from this update. The older operating system Microsoft will continue to receive security updates for the previous version 8 to April 2014.
The installation process overwrites the version of Internet Explorer on your computer that you can still recover from the Control Panel .
Users of the Beta and RC will be pleased to know that you can upgrade to the final without having to uninstall the prerelease version: the installer provides to do this in a completely automatic. The updated package will also be distributed via Windows Update also in the coming days.
The Redmond company has made available a good number of tests and demo to test the quality of new browser. If most of these are already familiar to users of prior versions, some more have been added for the occasion.
Excellent resources for further study on Internet Explorer 9 are represented by guide PDF / XPS beautyoftheweb.com published on the website and the material published by MegaLab.it tagged with Internet Explorer 9.
Although Internet Explorer 9 is probably the "best" browser, is certainly a viable alternative to the various more Firefox, Opera and Chrome, which is worth trying .
source: Megalab
More security filter SmartScreen new techniques and improved anti-exploit
As for the hot section "security", the ninth iteration of the browser Microsoft has all the features included in previous releases and some innovative pretty interesting. So here we findsafe mode, InPrivate Browsing and Domain Highlighting supported by a SmartScreen filter from enhanced functionality and a small number of new features that help to increase the level of security against certain specific types of attack. The filter
SmartScreen , introduced for the first time in Internet Explorer 7 as a tool against phishing, is the component that has undergone major changes.
The version included in Internet Explorer 9 not only to analyze the sites you visit and check whether the downloaded files contain malware known, but it also includes a feature analysis based on the reputation downloaded files.
This feature allows the browser to Microsoft not see safety warnings for known file safe (because many users downloaded and / or have a valid digital signature) and to advise in more eye-catching opening files that are potentially hazardous because they are not known or malware.
functionality in question, off the Beta, is now fully operational and, based on the early test, seems to behave quite well.
For those who want to experiment without risk, Microsoft has developed a microsite to download a file drawn up to take control of SmartScreen filter.
a look of respect to privacy
Internet Explorer 9 also introduces a revised version of InPrivate Filtering , now called Tracking protection, which is more user customizable and enriched with pre-populated lists and auto-updated site providers potentially unwanted content.
Stability: Checking
Add Concerning reliability and stability, the only significant innovation is the monitoring of performance add-ins. In fact, if a plug-in may significantly slow down browser startup and execution of the proposal it is automatically deactivated.
Faster with Chakra , Direct2D, DirectWrite and DirectX
One of the points on which the previous editions of Internet Explorer have often been overtaken by competitors is speed of loading pages and running JavaScript.The ninth version of the browser Microsoft promises to greatly improve in this area by introducing a number of interesting innovations.
Javascript
These surely occupy a prominent place on the new Javascript interpreter, code-named Chakra, has (like the various V8, Carakan , TraceMonkey and Nitro ) of compiler features and the ability to fully exploit the powerful multi-core processors by parallel loading of HTML and JavaScript. This last feature is currently exclusive to Microsoft's browser and should lead to significant improvements rather than fund performance.To give an idea of \u200b\u200bhow this tool improves the performance program, Microsoft itself has done to compare the most popular browsers using the SunSpider benchmark , one of the most popular test in this area, and publication of results on a site created ad hoc , where there are also many tests for the new features of the browser.
The improvement over the Beta, who finish in third place behind Chrome, and Opera, can be attributed, according to Microsoft, the long process of refinement that has been done in recent months by analyzing the most popular Web sites and optimizing the engine for manage the most frequent instructions.
acceleration hardware and minor enhancements
Another important new chapter in respect of the performance is the introduction of full support GPU hardware acceleration, which is now used for all rendering operations, relieving the central processor by a significant amount of calculations.This is achieved through support to a broad set of technologies, which include Direct3D, and Direct2D DirectWrite .
One scenario where this approach has major advantages is playback of high definition video , an operation that, thanks to this feature, it should be possible even on netbook and more generally on older computers.
But we must stress that this is not a novelty , since the most recent versions of alternative browsers have started to pursue this path for some time. In this regard Microsoft
said that at the time, the only browser capable of offering full hardware acceleration is your Internet Explorer 9.
At the final release, Microsoft has further work on the operation of hardware acceleration with low-end video cards, they should now ensure better performance.
For the more environmentally conscious is to be noted as Microsoft's browser is now able to automatically reduce energy consumption (and, of course, performance) in case the computer is a notebook unrelated Grid (configurable option from the Control Panel).
close the chapter a long list of performance optimizations included children in various parts of the code, which should further improve the behavior of the browser in several areas.
Impressions on performance
To test the actual skills velocistiche IE 9 I proceeded to run some tests on my production machine, equipped with a Celeron D 2.66 GHz, 1.25 GB of RAM, ATI X1650Pro video card with 512 MB of memory dedicated Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1. In particularwere verified the time needed to load some of the most popular sites and run the benchmark Peacekeeper , Focused on the graphics performance of the browser.
The results were then compared to the arguments of Opera 11 at the time credited as one of the fastest browser on the square.
The response, although the computer is not very recent and only has a single-core processor , was pretty good. In fact, while the difference between IE and Opera 8 was fairly large, the new browser from Microsoft's heels near the Norwegian fast opponent and is even able to overcome the loading of some sites. As for the benchmark
Peacekeeper, detailing the results obtained by the two browsers is below.
Better standards support
Another area in which Microsoft is focusing is the latest web standards support , like HTML 5, CSS 3 and DOM L2 and L3.The result of the work of Redmond can summed up the score to Internet Explorer 9 in Acid3 test , severe test for compatibility with standard web browser.
In this test the browser Microsoft reaches the encouraging results 95/100 that, although not yet at the level of the best competitors is a huge step forward compared to 20/100 the previous version and still a clear demonstration of Microsoft to make a browser that meets the standards promoted by the W3C consortium .
Coordinates and download information
Setup of Internet Explorer 9, available in Italian , can be downloaded from this page or download tab on . Microsoft will also distribute the update via Windows Update, though still not known the timing for the start of the deployment .As the preliminary versions, including the final release is only compatible with Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows 7 and its counterpart Server.
supports both 32-bit platforms, and 64-bit. In particular, the 64-bit package conveys both editions of the browser, so you must also install the 32-bit.
A further confirmation of the growing state of abandonment of this operating system, Windows XP users are excluded from this update. The older operating system Microsoft will continue to receive security updates for the previous version 8 to April 2014.
The installation process overwrites the version of Internet Explorer on your computer that you can still recover from the Control Panel .
Users of the Beta and RC will be pleased to know that you can upgrade to the final without having to uninstall the prerelease version: the installer provides to do this in a completely automatic. The updated package will also be distributed via Windows Update also in the coming days.
The Redmond company has made available a good number of tests and demo to test the quality of new browser. If most of these are already familiar to users of prior versions, some more have been added for the occasion.
Excellent resources for further study on Internet Explorer 9 are represented by guide PDF / XPS beautyoftheweb.com published on the website and the material published by MegaLab.it tagged with Internet Explorer 9.
opinion
After thoroughly tested Internet Explorer 9, I can safely say that Microsoft has managed the difficult task of appealing again make a product that seemed destined to be replaced by competition.Although Internet Explorer 9 is probably the "best" browser, is certainly a viable alternative to the various more Firefox, Opera and Chrome, which is worth trying .
source: Megalab
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