Late last night, Microsoft officially released Internet Explorer 9 to the public. If you are a Windows Vista or Windows 7 user, you will want to obtain this new version immediately. Microsoft has updated the web browser with several security fixes, faster performance, and bug fixes. One of those bug fixes corrects a major problem for many web sites, including this newsletter's site at www.eogn.com.
The "Internet Explorer 8 display problem" resulted in many web pages being blank or mostly blank when displayed on-screen. Yet all the other web browsers of today (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and others) will display the same web pages perfectly. Microsoft did insert a work-around into version 8 called Compatibility Mode, that did fix the problem on a web-site-byweb-site basis. However, users had to know about the problem, understand it, then find the Compatibility Mode icon and click on it. In fact, many users never found it. The new version 9 of Internet explorer fixes the problem and reportedly displays almost all web pages correctly.
Internet Explorer version 9 operates faster than earlier releases and contains numerous other bug fixes. It also supports a new Do Not Track header that Mozilla proposed earlier this year. If you’ve blocked a third-party site, it will now be blocked for access in Flash and other ActiveX controls as well. This is a major security improvement, adding protection against sites that deliberately attempt to steal information from your PC.
On the downside, Internet Explorer version 9 will only install on Vista or Windows 7. Users of the older Windows XP are out of luck. Actually, all Windows users, including those using Windows XP, should install one of the better browsers from competitors, namely Firefox (www.mozilla.com) or Chrome (www.google.com/chrome). Both of those products are strong competitors to Internet Explorer version 9, both have even better security, and both of them work properly on Windows XP.
You can read much more about the new Internet Explorer version 9 at hundreds of web sites, including ZDnet's article at http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/internet-explorer-9-is-released-should-you-switch/3058?tag=nl.e539
You can download the new Internet Explorer version 9 at microsoft.com/IE9
