14 DAY TRIAL // The first taste of Internet Explorer 9 is now available for download, a developer-centric release, not ready for the general public at this point in time. As initial enthusiasm gets toned down and the dust starts settling after the day-two MIX10 keynote address from IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch, it’s now time to look at the details related to Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview Build 1.9.7.7.45.6019. Users attempting to download and install the early preview development milestone of IE9 from a machine running Windows Vista SP1 or Windows XP found out since yesterday that Internet Explorer 9 would not support the operating system released nearly a decade ago, in 2001.
Customers that tried to deploy IE9 Platform Preview on Vista SP1, XP SP3, or older releases of Windows got the following message from the installer: “Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview doesn’t support any operating systems earlier than Windows Vista SP2.” This aspect is evident in the system requirements outlined by Microsoft.
“Internet Explorer Platform Preview requires Windows 7 (x86 or x64) or Windows Vista SP2 (x86 or x64). For Vista users, Windows Internet Explorer 8 and DirectX 2D (D2D) must be installed on your system. If you’re not already running Internet Explorer 8, download and install it first. Then install DirectX 2D by installing the Platform Update for Windows Vista, available on Windows Update,” the company stated.
The reason for this is simple enough, and thinking back, it could have been easily anticipated as early as PDC2009, when Hachamovitch showed the first demo of the browser. With the advent of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft brings to the table hardware-acceleration capabilities. IE9 is designed to take advantage of the GPU (graphics processing unit), namely the graphics card in order to deliver a superior user experience. In his MIX10 keynote, the IE GM highlighted the advantages in performance of GPU-powered HTML5 over older browsers.
Hardware-acceleration works hand in hand with modern graphics cards and two of the application programming interfaces specific to DirectX 11, namely DirectWrite and Direct2D. Both APIs come with DX11 on Windows 7, and have been backported, but only as far as Windows Vista SP2.
“You need a Windows PC running either Windows 7 or Vista. On Vista, you need to have installed Internet Explorer 8 and you need to install the Platform Update for Windows Vista, available on Windows Update since October, 2009. Platform Preview is only available in a 32-bit x86 version but it will install and run on 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista,” Microsoft added.
“Internet Explorer 9’s GPU-powered graphics take advantage of new technologies available in Windows 7 and back-ported only to Windows Vista. These technologies depend on advancements in the display driver model introduced first in Windows Vista,” the company explained.
Microsoft will cut support for Windows Vista RTM on April 13th, 2010, in less than a month. Similarly, XP SP2 will reach end of support on July 13th. And while users will continue to run Vista SP1 and XP SP3, the former no later than 24 months after the release of Vista SP2, the latler until April 2014, they won’t be able to take advantage of DirectX 11, or Internet Explorer 9.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview is available for download here.