Take Internet Explorer 10 on a Test Drive

Posted 04/12/2011 at 12:54pm | by Paul Lilly

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We're still trying to get used to the look and feel of Internet Explorer 9, and if Microsoft was in the same mindset as it was in 2001, we'd have 5 years to play around with it before Redmond would release a new browser. Apparently Microsoft is officially over its malaise in the browser wars, and lest you don't believe it, the world's largest software maker just unveiled the first platform preview of Internet Explorer 10 at Microsoft's MIX11 conference.

"The only native experience of HTML5 on the Web today is on Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 9," said Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Internet Explorer. "With Internet Explorer 9, websites can take advantage of the power of modern hardware and a modern operating system and deliver experiences that were not possible a year ago. Internet Explorer 10 will push the boundaries of what developers can do on the Web even further."

Picking up where IE9 leaves off, IE10 will include support for additional standards, such as CSS3 Gradients on background images and CSS3 Flexible Box Layout, Microsoft says. But rather than listen to Microsoft hype it up, the software maker is inviting developers to download the Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview and give it a test drive.

Just as with the IE9 Platform Preview that preceded the browser's beta, RC, and final release builds, don't expect a whole lot out of IE10 at this point. There isn't any real UI to play with and no amenities like tabbed browsing, though you can run Microsoft's HTML5 demos, including brand new ones like Fishbowl, an update to the original FishIE tank.

Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview