Tag: ie9

Categories
Microsoft Windows Installer, Application Compatibility and Deployments

Internet Explorer 9 – Group Policy Settings and other FAQ for IT Pros

Internet Explorer 9 FAQ for IT Professionals

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff973977.aspx

Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Internet Explorer 9

This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the administrative template files (admx/adml) delivered with Windows Internet Explorer 9. The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Internet Explorer 5, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9. These files are used to expose policy settings when you edit Group Policy objects (GPOs) using Group Policy Object Editor (also known as GPEdit).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=21e84c24-b967-4d6d-850a-5eb554d18447

Group Policy Settings (TechNet)

Microsoft® Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 provided nearly 1,500 Group Policy settings that IT pros can use to manage and control the web browser configuration. For example, Internet Explorer 8 provided Group Policy settings that govern access to settings on the Internet Options dialog box, define security zones, and add or remove websites in a security zone. Internet Explorer 9 adds new Group Policy settings to support new features. Table 3 describes some of these new Group Policy settings. Note that from Internet Explorer 9 Beta to Internet Explorer 9, a few additional policies have been added, based on new features in Internet Explorer 9 and user feedback.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff986259.aspx

Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 9

To help our customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft will distribute Windows Internet Explorer 9 as an important update through Automatic Updates for Windows Vista SP2 for x64 and x86, Windows Server 2008 SP2 for x64 and x86, Windows 7 x86 RTM and higher and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM and higher for x64. This Blocker Toolkit is intended for organizations that would like to block automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 9 to machines in environments where Automatic Updates is enabled. The Blocker Toolkit will not expire.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a6169467-b793-4d17-837d-01776bf2bea4

Categories
General Microsoft

Experience a Richer, more immersive Web: Download Internet Explorer 9 beta today

Few days back, I had blogged about the meet which I attended with the IE9 team at the local Microsoft office, discussing on lot of stuffs which the community has been talking about the Internet Explorer. Its glad to see, some of them being already part of this latest version of the browser., and without doubts the handpicked feature is an inbuilt Download Manager.

Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. today announced the availability of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta for its consumers in India. Enabling a more beautiful and immersive Web, Microsoft has re-imagined the role of the browser with Windows and Internet Explorer 9 to deliver an experience that makes the Web feel as native as consumers’ favorite PC applications. Using full capabilities of Windows and hardware, IE9 enables a version of the Web that is faster, cleaner and more trusted by default. In short, IE9 is helping the Web go native and unlocking the beauty of the Web. Consumers can download the beta today at www.BeautyoftheWeb.com.

Internet Explorer 9

Keeping in mind the changing consumer needs, the new browser has been made for customers who love rich Web applications and developers who love to build them. In India, Microsoft has partnered with some of the most popular websites – Rediff India, Zapak Games, Indiatimes & NDTV.com – to bring alive the IE9 capabilities and to further leverage the power of the whole PC. These experiences will be available to consumers in the coming weeks. Globally, Microsoft has partnered with over 70 top websites and global brands who have created new experiences to show off the capabilities of Internet Explorer 9 and whose collective reach is over 800 million visitors or about two thirds of the active people on the Web. These partners include Amazon, eBay, IMDB, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Announcing the availability, Hemant Sachdev, Managing Director – Consumer & Online, Microsoft India said, “Consumers today use the Web as a source of entertainment, education, information and as a platform for communication. Keeping all these consumer needs in mind, we have made unprecedented investments to develop our latest browser, Internet Explorer 9 which has been made site-centric rather than browser centric. Clean and minimalistic looking, IE9 redefines browsing as we know it today, and deliver a whole new, beautiful online experience.”

IE9 has been re-engineered to use computing power in an interesting way. The new browser continues to be your trusted companion for browsing the Web while its user interface elevates websites and applications using features like:

  • Pinned Sites: Favorite websites can be pinned to the Windows taskbar for shortcut access
  • Tear-off tabs: When users need to use more than one website to accomplish a task, this feature helps with side-by side comparison (using Aero Snap feature in Windows 7)
  • Integrated Windows 7 navigation: Web navigation is easier in Internet Explorer 9 with features that are integrated with Windows 7 navigation, such as Jump Lists, Aero® Snap, tear-off tabs, and thumbnail controls. This allows users to get to their favorite sites and content quickly and carry out common tasks for each site right from the Windows 7 jump list
  • Add-on performance advisor: Notifies users when add-ons are slowing down their browsing session
  • SmartScreen Filter: Now integrates scans into the new Download Manager, using Download Reputation to remove unnecessary warnings for well-known files

Customer and Partner Excitement- Consumers will now experience an immersive and trusted Web experience with IE9. Partners worldwide are excited about the launch and have already built Web experiences on their websites that take advantage of IE9. Globally, Microsoft has already partnered with over 70 top websites and global brands including the top social networking sites – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn; the No. 1 site for retail – Amazon.com; auction – eBay; and entertainment information – IMDB. In India, Microsoft’s launch partners are Rediff India, IndiaTimes, NDTV.com and Zapak Games.

Endorsing the capabilities of IE9, Sumit Rajwade, Vice President – Technology, Rediff.com India Ltd. “Our association with Microsoft goes way back when IE 4.0 was launched with DHTML capabilities all the way to IE8 last year. We are happy taking it to a new level by leveraging features in IE9 for our social music streaming product –SongBuzz. SongBuzz now uses HTML5 capabilities which come with IE9 such as audio tagging, local storage and the ability to integrate with Windows 7, hence delivering a differentiated social music experience. What we’ve experienced while building Songbuzz for IE9 – it truly redefined browsing!”

On their association with IE9, Deepak Abbot, Vice President – Zapak.com, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd. said, “With the beta availability of IE9, Zapak will take on a new smooth and sleek avatar. With HTML5 for gaming, Zapak.com can now deliver a whole new and rich user experience to consumers. Zapak.com can now be directly installed on consumer PCs just like any standard Windows application; hence making it quick and easy for our users. What’s more, with IE9, consumers will be able to personalize their Zapak.com Web page and share games with their friends on social networks such as Windows Live. We are very excited about the IE9 beta launch and are happy to be one Microsoft India’s first partners to bring consumers a redefined online gaming experience.”

For more information on Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, visit www.microsoft.com/ie or www.BeautyoftheWeb.com

Categories
General Microsoft

Meet with Microsoft Applications Practice Team – Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 4

Last week, i got an invite to attend a technical briefing up on the Internet Explorer 9 at the local Microsoft Office. When I went there, I saw Harish and Sandeep ready with their slide-decks and demos. After a round of our introductions, the Tech briefing started. The discussion was primarily around the Performance improvements, HTML5 significance, Integrated SVG, WOFF (Open Font Format) and the Hardware Acceleration of the latest version of the Internet Explorer browser.

The Fourth Platform Preview moves the new JavaScript engine, codenamed Chakra, inside IE9 and brings them together into one single, integrated system. Through this deep integration, the performance of real world websites significantly improves, and IE9 becomes the first browser to have a shared DOM between the browser and the script engine based on ECMAScript5. The benefits are both in performance and consistency.

Chakra is the new JScript engine developed by Microsoft for their upcoming Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) web browser. A distinctive feature of the engine is that it compiles scripts on a separate CPU core, parallel to the web browser.

The New JScript Engine - Chakra

The performance benefits of hardware accelerated HTML5 are clear from running different sample sites side by side in IE9 and other browsers. Browsers that implement partial hardware acceleration – for example, text-only, or video-playback only, or image-only acceleration – offer inconsistent and possibly unpredictable platform experiences to developers and end-users. IE9 offers consistent, fully hardware-accelerated text, graphics, and media, both audio and video.

The IE9 Platform Preview 4 also introduces a highly-interactive and integrated SVG. Typically, developers think of SVG as the graphics format for static engineering diagrams and images. With HTML5 and hardware acceleration, SVG is an excellent choice for a new class of interactive, animated scenarios.

If you have not yet tried the Internet Explorer Platform Preview 4 and its demos., do give it a shot here – http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Few Feedbacks and Questions Raised during the Discussion:

  • When can we expect the Download Manager in the Internet Explorer Browser? – No information as of now, as it was more a developer overview. We can expect some news on the User Experience features on Sep 15 (beta launch).
  • Cross Platform – Availability – No plans to make IE browser available for other platforms like Linux and Mac.
  • The Internet Explorer 8.0 Task bar Launch Issue- Scenario: Trigger a download and  close all the IE browser windows, excluding the file Download one. Now when you click on the quick launch button in the task bar, the browser doesn’t launch. You will need to right-click and open a new instance. – Feedback will be sent to the Development Team.
  • Security Enhancements – The In-private browsing experience would be much better and secure. No Concrete words from them.
  • Sand boxing Technique and Tabs, how Process Kill would be handled – The IE Browsing tabs would be more robust, but nothing clear with multiple tabs as of now; because the Platform Preview is just a frame.
  • Significance of the new UA String – Changed with the new version. Read more
  • Extensibility – Would be more developer friendly in coming days.
  • Can we expect the browser to give the same experience on Both PC and Windows Phone? – In the initial releases of Windows Phone.. No! But in the future, Yes. (Thoughts are that, the Windows Phone 7 will run with the IE6 Browser)
  • Extensions and Add-Ons – One of the biggest areas where other browsers is beating IE is with the add-on/extension support and development. There isn’t anything significant from Internet Explorer other than the 3-4 most used Add-Ons. This phase needs to be changed, to make the browser more geeky and user friendly!
  • Strategy for Pushing Internet Explorer 9 in the Market – The initial release will target the consumers; Moving forward the concentration would be to get onto Enterprises and see how it can be used in a corporate environment.

If you have any more questions / Comments to the Internet Explorer Team, do write in the comments here. I shall forward the same to them!

An Event would be conducted on September 15th at San Fransisco where the first public beta of Internet Explorer 9 will be demo’ed and made available. Lets wait for Sept 15th, to know what’s more in Store!

Update: 8th September 2010 – Sandeep Alur did try out some of the tests of the IE9 demos on latest browsers and here are his findings – “FF has improved drastically from the previous versions, but IE 9 still leads the race. Another important element to note is of the fish movements. IE9 is still smooth, while FF has a little bit of a drag. Chrome is lagging big time with massive CPU usage as indicated in the visuals.”

Fish Tank Demo in IE9
Fish Tank Demo in IE9
Fish Tank Demo in Chrome 6
Fish Tank Demo in Chrome 6
Fish Tank Demo in FireFox4
Fish Tank Demo in FireFox4

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Categories
General Microsoft

Try Internet Explorer (IE) 9 Platform Preview 3

The IE9 Platform Preview 3 is available via the IE Test Drive site! The developer preview was released at MIX 2010 earlier.

The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 3 will give you a glimpse of what’s coming in Internet Explorer 9, the next version of the world’s most popular Web browser. A word of caution that this Preview is meant for developers and doesn’t include all the “user” features. The PP3 installs side by side with IE8.

IE9 is where same mark-up and performance meet hardware acceleration to shatter the glass ceiling on the Web – creating endless possibilities of rich, powerful Web applications. Let’s take a sneak peek into what’s so cool about IE9 PP3:

  1. IE9 uses your whole PC to unlock the next class of experiences for the web. It is one of the fastest browsers today and the new JavaScript engine translates into an even faster IE 9.
  2. IE9 introduces GPU-powered Canvas & GPU-powered <audio> and <video>and moves the browser from running on a crowded, single CPU to the fast, spacious GPU. Microsoft’s partnership with NVIDIA and AMD/ATI enables a solid understanding of GPU-CPU compatibility.
  3. Increasing the support for standards is just part of the equation for creating the next version of the world’s most popular browser. Additionally, they have added new tools for developers to enable them create rich, standards-compliant, interoperable Web applications while making it easy for them to test and debug their web sites.
  4. Includes expanded support for HTML5, hardware-accelerated graphics and text, and a new JavaScript engine. Together these allow developers to use the same markup and deliver graphically and functionally rich Web applications that take advantage of modern PC hardware through a modern operating system.

Test Drive the Internet Explorer (IE) 9 Platform Preview 3 here

Thanks Abhishek for this information!