Microsoft has released the Internet Explorer 9 release candidate, which is now feature complete.
Microsoft unveiled its latest version of Internet Explorer 9 in San Francisco, after seven platform preview builds and a beta.
The company has focused on improved performance driven by hardware acceleration, a commitment to HTML5, a more minimal user interface and built-in privacy features.
This release candidate introduces many new features based on these themes and from user feedback.
IE9 has made improvements to pinned sites, letting users take their favourite websites and place them directly on the Windows 7 taskbar. A number of sites have take advantage of this feature.
For example, social gaming site hi5 used this to take its products out of the browser and onto the PC. When a friend sends a message or something happens in the game, the taskbar notifies the user and they can jump back into the game.
The latest version of Internet Explorer also has tracking protection. This lets users limit the browser’s communication with certain websites to help keep information private. Users can install Tracking Protection Lists to manage this.
The release candidate expands support for HTML5, adding geolocation capabilities to the browser.
It also includes smaller features, such as the ability to close a tab without making it active.
Internet Explorer 9 is available to download now.
