Microsoft launched the release preview version of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 yesterday. And as you would have expected, the company has now shared a handful of details about its new browser for its old operating system.
The company described the improvements it made in the latest version of its popular web browser, claiming that this new version is 30 percent than any other browser on Windows 7.
In fact, it loads pages 9 percent faster than Internet Explorer 10.
Redmond shared the secrets behind this significant speed boost in a blog post, and it all comes down to the improvements the technology titan made to Chakra — its internal JavaScript engine:
“Internet Explorer 11 advances the performance leadership of our JavaScript engine, Chakra, while ensuring compatibility, interoperability, and security. As we improve performance for real-world sites, IE11’s JavaScript performance on benchmarks like WebKit SunSpider continues to lead compared with latest version of other browsers.”
But speed enhancements are not the only kind of improvements in Internet Explorer 11.
This new browser also brings around better compatibility with existing websites, as well as support for new web standards. At the same time, IE 11 offers a similar mix of experience and performance no matter if it is run using a keyboard, mouse, pen or touch:
“IE11 Release Preview for Windows 7 adds new user controls for the Standard Delivery Profile for Closed Captioning. With the new control, accessible from the Internet Options menu, users can customize how captions appear in the browser, even overriding the default styling provided by the video source. This customization further advances IE11 as the best browser for professional-quality online video without plugins.”
Sold on these new improvements?
But if testing out the Release Preview version is not your cup of tea, then good news is that you will not have to wait too much for the final bits. Microsoft will, for obvious reasons, not launch the stable build of IE 11 for Windows 7 on October 18 — the launch date of Windows 8.1.
Nevertheless, word is that the company is planning to release IE 11 for Windows 7 before the end of the year, as opposed to months into the future. So this is something to look forward to.