windows Windows 7 receives nearly full Windows 8.1 IE11 treatment

sincity · November 7, 2013

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/internet/IE11%20preview/ie11-windows-7-demo-470-75.jpg

The latest version of Internet Explorer 11 is finally being ported from Windows 8.1 to Windows 7.

Since September 18, IE 11 has been available to gamers and start button purists holding onto Windows 7 as a Release Preview, but now everyone can download the newly finalized build of Microsoft's internet browser.

The IE 11 build coming to Windows 7 is almost the same as what comes with the recently shipped Windows 8.1. It features the same speed improvements, enhanced web security measures and interface updates as its newer counterpart.

The update also includes Microsoft's F12 developer tools and support for touch gestures, as well as Microsoft's new clutter-free Reading View for Internet Explorer

What's under the hood?

According to the Redmond company, users switching over from IE10 will see a 9% performance increase on version 11. Microsoft has also previously claimed IE11 as the fastest desktop browser in the world at 30% quicker than competitors like Safari and Chrome.

Microsoft-produced numbers aside, IE11 brings some serious browser upgrades to the four-year-old OS. The real reason behind the browser's faster speed is the Flip Ahead feature, which preloads up to two pages if you're reading a multipage story.

The other major new addition is Microsoft has finally supported WebGL on Windows 7. If you tdon't know what WebGL is, it makes image filled webpages load faster using GPU hardware acceleration whilst using less memory. It also supports HTML5 link pre-fetching and pre-rendering.

The top URL bar remains an aesthetic miss on Windows 7 where it can be found on the bottom in Windows 8.1. The ported browser also does not have the new tab view, and IE 11 doesn't support Google's SPDY protocol (the precursor to HTTP 2.0) on Windows 7 or the newer OS.