Hot on the tail of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft has released a preview version of Internet Explorer 10. This pre-release software showcases some of the features there are to look forward to in the browser including greatly improved support for CSS3 components such as grid alignment, gradient backgrounds, multi-column layouts and more, as well as far better support for HTML 5.
The platform preview of Internet Explorer 10 can only be installed on Windows 7, both 32- and 64-bit versions, and there are plenty of exciting new features to explorer. While features such as code-based background gradients are only going to really be of interest to coders - although it does mean that site visitors can benefit from faster loading pages - features such as flowing content between multiple columns shows great promise for customisable web pages.
Hardware acceleration will ultimately allow for web pages that are far more visually impressive without the need for reams of slow, inefficient code. As much of the hard work can be placed on the computer visiting web sites, web designers are free to be more adventurous without worrying about performance.
This is obviously very early code for the browser, but things are shaping up well. If you like to be at the cutting edge of technology, this is an essential installation, but it is worth remembering that this is far from being finished software and it is not really suitable for use as a main browser. While IE 10 can be used as a browser, the current preview version does not feature any toolbar buttons, so accessing program options and features such as the address bar means having to navigate through menus.
Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 4 is the fourth public preview of the IE10 web platform. This preview release includes support for major platform features like Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), improvements to the Web Worker developer experience, File API, top level Quirks mode emulation and more.
