News

Microsoft's IE9 Due March 14

• By Kurt Mackie
• 03/10/2011

Microsoft says it will release Internet Explorer 9 next Monday.  Users can download IE 9 beginning at 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time on March 14, according to the company's announcement.

Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Internet Explorer, thanked the overall testing community for providing 17,000 items of feedback to Microsoft, starting back when IE 9's beta was released (September, 2010) to its RC release in February, as described in a Microsoft Channel 9 video. He noted that Microsoft made certain decisions about which HTML 5 features to support in IE 9, based not just on frequency of use, but also based on stability. For the promising yet still-evolving HTML 5 technologies not supported in the browser, Microsoft offers test cases for developers at its HTML5 Labs site.

Hachamovitch plans to deliver the keynote address at MIX 11 Web developer event in Las Vegas, which will open on April 12.

The final IE 9 release will arrive a little more than one year from the time that Microsoft announced its first platform preview of IE 9. A general overview of what Microsoft intended to accomplish with IE 9 is described by Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer business and marketing, in this Q&A. A list of some of the top features can be found here.

Microsoft is also showing enthusiasm for the impending death of its IE 6 browser. Microsoft started an Internet Explorer 6 Countdown site that will chronicle the fading use of its near-decade-old browser. IE 6 continues to be used, but it has potential security risks and requires that Web developers code for quirks.