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IE9

Internet Explorer 8, which came bundled with Windows 7, offered increased protection against internet nasties like malware (malicious software) and phishing but, like its competitors, used less than 10 per cent of a personal computer’s processing power.

Internet Explorer 9  is the first web browser to use hardware acceleration which makes it up to 11 times faster than its predecessors and competition.

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The Internet Explorer 9 performs well on personal computers running Microsoft’s Windows 7 or Windows Vista operating systems; it won’t work on Windows XP, but is designed to take advantage of higher specification machines. If your computer, whether it is a desktop or laptop machine, is fitted with a graphics card in its PCI or PCI-E slot IE9 will use the card, designed for graphic design and gaming, to display websites faster and clearer than you are used to.

IE9 has been designed to seamlessly integrate with Windows and run websites as if they were programs installed on your machine, rather than data on some distant computer server the other side of the world which takes a while to load.

To the everyday user, IE9 looks cleaner and less cluttered than its predecessors and competition, becoming a more stylish alternative.

IE9 does away with separate address bars and search engine boxes to create what Microsoft is calling One Box. Typing in the One Box presents a drop down menu with two lists – the first offers a list of suggested website addresses and the second with a list of search engine results. The default setting is Microsoft’s Bing search engine, although it can be changed to Google or any other search engine.

The icon for your favourite website from the One Box can be dragged down to the taskbar, along the screen’s bottom, where it sits alongside the Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and Windows Media Player icon.

There’s also several changes under the IE9 bonnet that, frankly, only the nerdiest nerd will understand and care about but it is important to note that IE9 includes its predecessor’s increased security functionality.

Download IE9 at www.beautyoftheweb.com