Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview available for Windows 7 with new features and improvements

By Michael Archambault
last updated

Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 Consumer Preview introduced their latest version of the Trident based web browser, Internet Explorer 11. Today the company has released the developer preview of IE11 for those still on Windows 7.

Internet Explorer 11 promises to bring improved performance, faster page load times, new standards support for next generation sites, and a completely redesigned “F12” developer toolkit.

A faster browsing experience is thanks to new technologies such as Internet Explorer 11’s ability to natively decode images in real-team using a machine’s GPU; this ability plus the browser’s additional capability to render text on the GPU is said to also use less memory usage, reduce energy usage, and improve battery life.

In addition, the latest version of Microsoft’s browser is the first to implement the World Wide Web Consortium’s Resource Priorities, allowing web developers to pick which parts of a web page need to be loaded first.

A little bit of artificial intelligence also never hurts (except in every Sci-Fi movie ever), which is why Internet Explorer 11 supports HTML5 link prefetching and pre-rendering; this allows the web browser to try and anticipate where you will visit next and load those links before you click on them.

Microsoft has been putting a lot of their cards into the “Hardware-Accelerated” category for the past few Internet Explorer releases. Internet Explorer 11 includes support for WebGL technology to render 2D and 3D content using the machine’s GPU.

To protect a user’s machine against malicious intent, Internet Explorer 11 scans all WebGL content for unsafe content. In addition, the hardware-accelerated WebGL content will only run on verified safe GPU drivers and hardware.

Lastly, Internet Explorer brings improved developer tools allowing web developers to profile sites and fix performance faster than ever. The new F12 toolkit includes a UI Responsiveness and Memory Profiling tool, Live DOM Explorer, CSS inspection tool, and JavaScript debugging support.

If you currently use Internet Explorer, go ahead and download Microsoft’s latest developer preview here (opens in new tab). Otherwise, just stick with whichever browser you are probably using instead.

Any Internet Explorer fans in our audience?

Source: IE Blog (opens in new tab)

42 Comments
  • Me! :) but there's always room for improvement... :D
  • I am using IE even though there are few quirks with it. Hopefully it will get better with the new IE11 that I installed :)
  • That's what I find. Some quirks are just embarrassing. My biggest complaint is 35% of the time the back button doesn't work! #sigh#
  • Alwayssss #IE .... :) But im already using IE11 in Windows 8.1 B-)
  • IE and customized FF. Anything that doesn't have Scroogles hooks in it. I miss Opera.
  • Why do you miss it? You can still use it. Im a current opera user and I hate it, but I can't get away from it because no other browser has all the minor features I like in opera. IE 10 comes the closest, I believe, but still missing support for undoing close tab (I know it's minor, but I use it a lot). But I really do sacrifice a lot of performance for this feature.
  • Around IE6 I moved to Firefox, which ended up being slower and crashed more, even on a fresh install of the OS. When Chrome was released, I started using that till year ago when Win8 came out with IE10. IMO IE10 (and 11) render websites faster, smoother, and generally better than chrome (except websites bias to IE). Just from experience chrome has gotten slower and mire web pages aren't displaying properly in it. That's why I switched to IE. Anyone else have similar problems?
  • Yes!! Same thing dont knw why ppl make fun of ie
  • Because up until IE10, IE required coding explicitly for that browser while other browser's didn't need to be coded for (Meaning, IE wasn't very HTML complient until recently).
  • IE10 is even worse - I had to spend a solid week fixing IE10 only issues for the website I work on. Note: not HTML rendering issues but more catestrophic, total-failure issues on .NET websites - yes, on websites using Microsoft technology *facepalm*
  • Same here! Even my GF noticed how fast IE 10 is and switched from Firefox... :)
  • Firefox has been fixed. Between 4 and 16 there were at least 3 versions that fixed memory leaks. Now they have the leanest memory use of all the web browers. On my home computer I typically have about a dozen tabs open in firefox. With just 2 tabs chrome freezes momentarily when switching. Granted this behavior is inconsistant and it doesn't do it all the time, but it does happen more often that not. IE10 is good, but its not as far along as FireFox 16 (which is now horribly outdated) html5test.com may put chrome in the lead, but I don't count anything that uses a -moz- or -webkit- or -ms- prefix. When I look at caniuse.com, it has a tendancy to (at least with CSS) put firefox back where it belongs, ahead of chrome. If only they would deprefix -moz-box-sizing. As a web developer, prefixes piss me off.
  • Same except I've switched since IE9. I find Firefox more stable than chrome though.
  • I am using ie10 after chrome's you tube bug was found out
  • Don't knw why people make fun of internet explorer but according to me its the fastest believe me i have used all.....
  • Have to give the IE team props for making such strides with the speed and performance of IE.  The functionality on the other hand...
  • As a developer the best thing about this is that its FINALLY caught up to the firebug "standard", which is now built into chrome, firefox, and now this version of IE. (I'm talking about the right click->inspect element feature) Unfortunately they won't even let me upgrade from 9 to 10 at work and I almost never use it at home. Stupid IT nazis should let developers pick ALL the versions of web browsers they want. We know what we are doing(unless we are dumb enough to develop for an old version of IE and then tack on support for newer browsers, which I have never done)
  • I use is because its the safest!
  • Having a win 7 pc ,waited for IE 10,but getting IE11 :)
  • IE's come a very long way in a short time. Still not my browser of choice (I don't find it has stable or fast has Chrome), however, it's come a long way since IE7. Keep up the improvements, Microsoft! Competition is always welcome! 
  • I use IE, i had chrome installed on my old machine, but I haven't installed it on this new one, I won't use firefox, and I really really like IE, also have ya'll seen the IE vines, hillarious! 'I'll never be like youuuuuu!'
  • I like Internet Explorer, it's gotten so much better. I used to be a Firefox die-hard fan, but when I tried Chrome, its speed and responsiveness hooked me up. Many things have changed over the years, but I still don't see a way to leave Chrome. Strangely enough, I hate Google corporation with a passion.
  • hmmm maybe I'll give this a try, Chrome isn't as good as it was once imo
  • I'll look at IE just when MS realize profiles. Without profiles browser is not useful
  • My only problem with IE is it doesn't play nice with outlook.com, that and the fact that chrome allows me to sync my history, passwords, etc. across devices.
  • IE11 can sync across devices. But you'll need windows devices to do this. unfortunately windows phone will get IE11 only in early 2014.
  • im happy that microsoft didnt forget us (windows 7 users)
  • Microsoft is not going to forget you, Windows 7 users, by now. But prepare to upgrade around Windows 8.1 or 8.2 because not upgrading will mean that YOU forgot the company (then you lose the right to complain, as XP users).
  • nah unless microsoft relses windows 8 without metro, and normal start (i know this will never happen just sayin). i dont miss anything windows 8 is offering, but i would miss windows games which were removed because of metro
  • You are using a "Metro" phone, right.
  • Yes on my wp. But my PC comes with 22" 16:9 non-touch screen.
  • For the time being I'm sticking to Chrome with IE as my backup browers.  There really are a few things I'd like IE to do for me to switch over.  Unless I somehow missed a way on how to pin sites on the front page?  
  • The lack of a sync feature has kept me away from Internet Explorer - now I will give it a try!
  • They should first fix the UI:
    -the stutters,
    -the unpredictable loading animation that works intermittently,
    -the fact that if you paste an address into the address bar and switch to another tab before pressing Enter the address will be gone when you come back,
    -the blank bar on the top of the screen that contains nothing but 3 buttons and the window title wasting space all the while the tabs and the address bar are put together in a tiny space,
    -the ridiculouse temporary looking download and message bar that appears below your content,
    -the slowness of opening a new tab and waiting for it to open its default page after a couple flashes and more stutters,
    -the add-ons dialog that for some very weird reason has blue text and has nothing to do with the rest of the UI,
    and numerous more issues before I even consider taking another look at IE. Remember when they kept talkign about "Accelerators"? Who uses those?
    IE is primarily suffering from general UI issues, not GPU rendering. Among Microsoft's teams, the IE team is simply the worst one.
  • I wish for faster bootup times (it takes ages compared to Chrome) and useful extensions (like Proxtube) and the ability to block ads in Youtube videos and create ad-blocking exceptions for sites that I want to support.
     
    These days all three major browsers are kind of crappy. All of them have their retarded quirks.
     
    When I started really using the internet, it was in 2004 with Netscape (It introduced me to tabbed browsing after growing up with the AOL browser), then later one early version of Firefox.
    I proceeded to use Firefox for a while and stopped using it about a year or so before the "let's do updates at fuckspeed!" fiasco because it randomly stopped working (nothing could get it to run again). So I went to Chrome and wept because Chrome's Adblock doesn't directly prevent ads from loading and I didn't see any Script blocker back then. (Now I have NotScripts)
    Then I discovered the synch function of Chrome, which is vastly superior to the rudimentary version on Firefox.
    And now I would go to IE because of OS integration (Including synched tabs as announced feature!) and because Chrome is far from the fast and lightweight browser it once was. But first it needs to fullfill my wishlist.
  • I use IE primarily but have Chrome and Firefox installed for certain add-ons or when IE does that hazy fade thing it likes to do("not responding").
  • So when this upgrade will come out ?
  • Still no separate search bar huh?
  • is it out yet ?? can anyone post a download link if it is ??
  • Is there any way that I can download it for Windows 8.0 withoutout installing the full 8.1 preview?
  • Dang, I should probably upgrade from IE9 and accept the IE10 update :P
  • I don't like Firefox, especially since it can't play mp3files; it totally screws up my development. It may now support it, I have no idea. Can someone tell me if Firefox supports mp3 files without an extension?