Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 9 - but not for Windows XP users

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 will not run on Windows XP because the company made a decision to “push the web forward”, a spokesman has said. Microsoft launched its new browser at an event at the South By Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas.

The company emphasised IE9’s the speed and power, which come from its use of HTML 5 and hardware acceleration, which means the browser can draw on processing power from the PCs graphics processor as well as from the central processor. Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Internet Explorer, said: “We love HTML 5 so much, we wanted it to actually work.”

However, speaking to the Telegraph, Ovum analyst Richard Edwards said: “We consider it to be a non-event for the vast majority of corporate IT managers and their users largely because IE9 does not run on Windows XP - the operating system running on 67% of corporate desktops.” Ryan Gavin, Microsoft’s senior director of Internet Explorer, said that the company had to make a choice in developing IE9. He said: “Do you push the web forward, which requires a modern operating system? Or do you continue to build for the lowest common denominator.”

He said they had opted to “push the web forward” because demand from users was for better websites. Older operating systems, such as Windows XP, might not be able to cope with the demands of the new browser and nor would the older PCs running XP.

Gavin said that IE9 had been “fully re-architected”. He said that the hardware acceleration required for a modern browser means “you have to write for the operating system”. This makes it harder, Gavin argued, for browser manufacturers who make browsers for a range of operating systems because writing for several operating systems involves making trade-offs.

Microsoft released IE9 as a public preview in March last year and since then it has been downloaded more than 40 million times.

click to enlarge