Explore a new world

Company figures said that the share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the browsers segment was 60 per cent. For a firm like Microsoft, a leader in the PC OS market, this was news that set off alarm bells. From being the most dominating browser once, Internet Explorer suddenly found itself contending with new competitors for space on the shelf.

Today the market has changed and expanded so much that if you do not introduce or upgrade your software every now and then, you would lose out. The cautionary tale for Microsoft was the IE8 browser. IE 8 was never big when it came to ease of use or clean browsing experience.

With its latest, the IE9, Microsoft seems set to remedy all that. IE 9 is a force to reckon with. It is still in the Beta stage and needs some tinkering here and there. By the time it loses its Beta tag, these would have been taken care of. It is free to download and anyone who has Vista or Windows 7 installed on their systems can access IE9 for use.

Easy to set up
Downloading and setup hardly takes time. If you have XP you won't be able to use it, but Vista and Windows 7 users can download from www.bit.ly/b3DsDR. It is a small file and downloads without fuss. Then one restart and you are all set to browse on the brand new window.

Spruced up interface
What do we like about the interface? That is plain and simple. Microsoft has kept everything minimalistic. There are no interfering bars or numerous buttons to press. Instead you get a very clean interface with an address bar with Back and Forward buttons and some essentials, somewhat similar to what Google Chrome browser has. The layout does away with much of what you see in IE8. The menu bar has also been removed. A pleasing feature that the IE9 boasts is the colour changing Back and Forward button to match the shade of the website you have browsed. If you move from one website to the other, you know by the colour of the button which website you might have been browsing previously on BY SULABH PURI that window. The address bar doubles up as a search bar and prompts possible results even as you start typing in the search word or phrase.

Websites = Applications
IE9 uses the user interface capabilities of Windows 7 and programs IE9 to play with them. Websites that are HTML 5 ready can be transformed to act as programs on Windows 7 (HTML5 is the latest version of Hyper Text Markup Language, used to create web pages). These sites are called Pinned sites. All you have to do is log on to a website and then drag the window down to the Windows 7 task bar and pin it there. This is particularly useful for people who browse the same website or a link on a daily basis. After pinning it, you can click on that button and you access all the links and options associated with the website directly without the need to open additional windows.

The Performance
This is another place where IE9 leaves all other web explorers biting the dust. IE9 uses the power of core CPU and GPU units to turbo boost its interface. This not only enhances the viewers experience but also speeds up the process. We tried a couple of online tests like Microsoft FishIE to check the actual power of IE9 vis a vis other popular browsers like Firefox and Chrome. We were amazed to see four of six tests going in favour of IE9. Where IE9 did not finish on top, it finished a very close second. This also means that users have the option now to speed up the start of IE9. They can do this by reducing the number of start up programs that initialises with the opening of an explorer window. The open secret is to disable the unnecessary programs in IE options.

Online safety
IE9 uses the same engine which Microsoft Smart Essentials uses. It warns the users of probable malwares and attacks via the browser. It also warns of bogus downloads from websites that it determines is not a good page ranker.

This story is from the November 2010 edition of Gadgets and Gizmos. Subscribe to the magazine for the Print Copy or iPad.