Apr 12, 2011 17:03 GMT  ·  By

The first development milestone of Internet Explorer 10 is now available for download from Microsoft, although barely four weeks have passed since Internet Explorer 9 was released to web (RTW). Early adopters can head over to the IE Test Drive website and download IE10 Platform Preview 1 (PP1) immediately.

Just as it was the case with IE9 PP releases, IE10’s Platform Previews are offered mainly to web developers, and designed to let them assess the evolution of Internet Explorer, while focusing on under-the-hood components, features, etc.

“We’re about three weeks into development of IE10, and based on the progress we’ve made, we want to start engaging the development community now,” revealed Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Internet Explorer.

Devs are bound to be quite interested in the new enhancements IE10 PP1 introduces in terms of modern web standards support, including HTML5 and CSS3.

“At the MIX conference today, we showed the new browsing engine along with several new browser test drives that anyone on the Web can try out,” Hachamovitch added.

“You can run these at www.ietestdrive.com to see emerging standards like CSS3 Multi-column Layout, CSS3 Grid Layout and CSS3 Flexible Box Layout, CSS3 Gradients, and ES5 Strict Mode in action.”

According to the corporate VP for IE, upcoming Platform Preview releases will feature additional standards support, including CSS3 Transitions and CSS3 3D Transforms.

Most importantly, Hachamovitch underlines that Microsoft remains committed to delivering native support for HTML5 on Windows. Essentially, the software giant will continue on the path it started on with IE9.

Of course, just as it was the case with IE9, additional IE10 Platform Previews will follow at roughly every 8-12 weeks.

Just a reminder for end users, Platform Preview releases are designed for testing environments and not for deployment into production.

IE10 PP1 for example is the core of the next major iteration of Internet Explorer, but stripped down of all the features that would qualify it for a full browser.

Although, since it installs seamlessly and runs without any problems alongside IE9 RTW, I can’t think of a reason why those that absolutely want to give it a try shouldn’t.

Personally I welcome the way that the IE team evolved when it comes to listening and acting on feedback from users, web developers, etc., and I certainly love the new pace of IE releases. How about you?

Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Platform Preview 1 (PP1) is available for download here. Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows Vista SP2 64-bit edition and Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit edition is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 64-bit edition, Windows 7 SP1 64-bit edition, Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit edition and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit edition is available for download here.