Internet Explorer 9 release candidate available for download

A press release just hit my inbox proclaiming that an official release candidate for Internet Explorer 9 is now available for download. Microsoft's IE blog has a rundown of what users can expect from the RC build, which comes some five months after the IE9 beta was first released to the public. Feedback from the beta has fueled at least one major change in the user interface.

As part of its "site-centric" design, the IE9 beta put tabs on the same row as the address bar to make more room for site content. That apparently miffed more than a few users, who would prefer to have tabs on their own row like in Firefox, Chrome, and IE8. Interestingly, Microsoft says that only 3% of IE9 beta sessions opened more than five tabs. Beta browsers are more likely to be run by power users and enthusiasts, so I'd expect that percentage to be even lower among the general public. Nevertheless, the IE9 RC build gives users the option to let tabs stretch out on their own row.

With a hardware-accelerated rendering engine at its core, IE9 brings with it the promise of better performance than existing browsers. In fact, Microsoft claims the RC build is 35% faster than the beta release in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark. The RC's memory utilization has been trimmed, as well. On the features front, Microsoft has added support for tracking lists that gives users control over what information is shared with the sites they're browsing. There's also an ActiveX Filter that allows ActiveX preferences to be set on a site-by-site basis.

Microsoft says the IE9 beta was downloaded over 25 million times. The company will be listening to feedback "over the next few weeks," suggesting that a final release isn't too far off.

Source: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/20400
Download: Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate
 
You beat the other thread by about a minute, so I'll post here. :p

I'm wondering... Have they finally stomped that annoying bug where you try to save a picture, and it refuses to do it any other way than in .BMP format with the file name "untitled"? That one has lived on since IE6 at least (I used Netscape Navigator before that, so I don't know if it's actually even older...)
 
I installed the beta and whatever the preview thing was on two completely different Win7 64 boxes. On both boxes, it would launch, immediately Dr Watson itself, and then re-launch itself again, only to Dr Watson and repeat ad-infinitum.

I later discovered that it only Dr Watsoned when the mouse was anywhere on the IE window, you could leave it open indefinitely so long as the mouse cursor didn't touch any of the window space. But as soon as you did -- Dr Watson, restart, Dr Watson, restart, Dr Watson.........

Chrome for me, please.
 
My god, the MS IE UI developers are absolutely incompetant. Now that you can put the tabs on another row, there's plenty of room for a search box. But do they give us the option to have the search box again? Noooooo. Freaking idiots.

When I get time, it looks like I'll have to give Firefox a try again.

Regards,
SB
 
I installed it early this morning just before my post and I can say it's faster than Firefox atm. I like. It's still a RC so maybe your search box will reappear SB ;)
 
You beat the other thread by about a minute, so I'll post here. :p

I'm wondering... Have they finally stomped that annoying bug where you try to save a picture, and it refuses to do it any other way than in .BMP format with the file name "untitled"? That one has lived on since IE6 at least (I used Netscape Navigator before that, so I don't know if it's actually even older...)

Haven't seen that bug in a while so can't say if it still exists.
 
I had it just the other day (in IE8), which is what prompted me posting about it... Apparantly there's a significant amount of legacy code still in more recent IE versions, which must be where this bug resides since it keeps cropping up 10+ years after first appearing.
 
The BMP "bug" occurs when the file no longer resides on your HDD or in memory, thus IE9 just has the "rendered image" in video memory. So when saving, it is saving your video buffer into an uncompressed image format by default.

If this happens, just force IE to reload the image/website which should redownload the original image file and then when saving it'll use the file resident in disk cache rather than the contents of a video texture. It's not so much a bug as how the new rendering engine works in IE 7+.

Regards,
SB
 
Interesting...

Thanks for the clarification! So this behavior - even though it manifests in the exact same way - is different then than the previous bug from IE6 (and maybe even earlier, I can't remember)...?

What's so weird is I never had this particular issue ever with IE8 until the other day, but I'll keep in mind what you said. Thanks again.
 
I feel a big E coming on. Im going to try it as IE8 is becoming a bit of a drag and I started to become tempted by lesser browsers.

Edit: So far so good, hopefully it'll be stable unlike Firefox and not Google unlike Chrome. :)
 
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Is there a way to customize the installed search providers? I installed the Google-provider and it is using the google.com instead of google.fi and I would like to change it. Or is it possible to add new search providers manually, instead of using the plugin-site?

This is the part I would like to change:
 
My god, the MS IE UI developers are absolutely incompetant. Now that you can put the tabs on another row, there's plenty of room for a search box. But do they give us the option to have the search box again? Noooooo. Freaking idiots.

When I get time, it looks like I'll have to give Firefox a try again.

Regards,
SB

I personally still see IE's GUI as the best thing out there, only one getting even remotely close is Chrome.
 
Is there a way to customize the installed search providers? I installed the Google-provider and it is using the google.com instead of google.fi and I would like to change it. Or is it possible to add new search providers manually, instead of using the plugin-site?

You can make custom search providers it's pretty easy.

Go to add one...
At the bottom of the page should be a link to Create your own...
Then just follow the directions...

Of course, removal of the search box makes them far less useful. Stupid UI devs. Grrr.

Regards,
SB
 
The most important factor in choosing a browser for me is the effectiveness of adblock plus. Therefore FF still rules in that regard, while Chrome is closing in. If IE gets as good of an adblock plus as firefox, I'd switch.
 
The most important factor in choosing a browser for me is the effectiveness of adblock plus. Therefore FF still rules in that regard, while Chrome is closing in. If IE gets as good of an adblock plus as firefox, I'd switch.

Only thing it's missing is "element hider" from adblock plus as far as I know, and that's without any damn add-ons too.

The adblock plus's easylist for adblock & privacy are both available for IE9, among other tracking/adblocking lists
 
The most important factor in choosing a browser for me is the effectiveness of adblock plus. Therefore FF still rules in that regard, while Chrome is closing in. If IE gets as good of an adblock plus as firefox, I'd switch.
Dumb question, but do you also use noscript?
 
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