Quick way to use the Modern version of IE on Windows 10

Oct 2, 2014 11:43 GMT  ·  By

If you are one of the many users who already downloaded and installed Windows 10 preview, you most likely noticed that the modern version of Internet Explorer is missing from the operating system, so your only option to browse the web without a third-party app is the desktop flavor of IE. 

Microsoft has a pretty good reason for making Internet Explorer Metro unavailable in Windows 10 Preview: this build is mostly aimed at the desktop, so it includes options that are supposed to make it easier for you to work with a mouse and keyboard.

As a result, the Modern version of IE, which is completely optimized for touch, isn't quite the best app for Windows 10, hence the decision to offer only the desktop build.

And still, the touch-optimized Internet Explorer is still there in Windows 10 Preview, and although it's not included in the Start menu or on the Start screen, there's also a quick way to launch it.

Simple script taking care of everything 

It all comes down to a simple script that takes care of everything and lets you launch Internet Explorer in the Modern UI (given the fact Metro apps now launch in their own resizable windows, you can also use it to browse the web from the desktop).

Twitter user @adamUCF was the first to create such a script, so the first step is to download his file and change its extension to .ps1.

Once you do that, simply right-click the renamed file and open it with PowerShell, which should then launch Internet Explorer in the Modern UI, just like it was the case on Windows 8.

As Neowin writes, keep in mind that Internet Explorer must be the default browser on your Windows 10 Preview device.

No signs of Internet Explorer 12 

Windows 10 Preview doesn’t come with the new Internet Explorer 12, as some people close to the matter suggested recently, but instead includes an improved version of IE11.

And still, the final version of Windows 10 is very likely to come with the new Internet Explorer 12, which in addition to a completely revamped interface that would make it look more like Google Chrome, it will also feature extension support.

Internet Explorer will thus be a tougher rival for Firefox and Google Chrome, Microsoft hopes. Sources close to the matter claim that IE12 is internally called Spartan, but this name is unlikely to be used for the final version too.