Internet Explorer 9 beta launched + screenshots

Microsoft's new browser, Internet Explorer 9 Beta, was released a few hours ago! Aim: slimmer, more effective, faster. You can download it right here:

In this blog post, I will briefly guide you through the most important functions. So you'll quickly know whether it's worth taking the plunge and whether I - as a long-time Google Chrome users - take the plunge:

Attention: XP users must stay outside! IE9 only works with Windows Vista and Windows 7.


After the download, additional components are transferred. On a slower test notebook (1.86 Ghz, 2 GB memory), the installation was completed in around 7 minutes. A faster 3 Ghz notebook with 4 GB memory and a fast SSD hard disk only needed 3 minutes.

The new Internet Explorer 9 interface: a smart, tidy design. The focus should no longer be on the browser, but only on the content!
If desired, only the favorites bars can be switched on. This was copied from Google Chrome in no time at all - unfortunately, the import function currently only works with Safari and Firefox. So all favorites had to be copied manually from Chrome.

The split between tabs and search in the "header" of Internet Explorer 9 is immediately displeasing - instead of one below the other (as in Chrome or Firefox), these important functions are arranged next to each other. This means that there is not enough space for one or the other to work effectively.
Good on the other hand: icons have been shrunk, all menu items are well hidden - but still visible after clicking on the "tool" icon!

Aero Snap utilized: In Windows 7, individual tabs can be dragged to the right or left edge of the screen - then they are enlarged to 50% of the screen width!

Individual websites can be docked to the taskbar in a flash! This gives you lightning-fast access to your favorite sites. For example, online mail services can be used almost like a local e-mail program!

Information bars are displayed at the bottom: These include problematic add-ons, downloads or suppressed pop-ups! This greatly reduces the disruptive factor of these messages.

Finally: A download manager - downloads can now be paused!

Internet Explorer 9 Beta uses your graphics card to speed up text and images in the browser. You can see how well this works on the IE9 Demo Websites try it out!

Internet Explorer 9 shows the loading speed of the add-ons. In my case, I was able to switch off Google add-ons and reduce the startup time of IE by a whopping seven seconds!

Preliminary conclusion: Great! I'll be using Internet Explorer 9 exclusively for the next few days - no Chrome or Firefox! I'll report back in a week with a detailed experience report.