Internet Explorer 10 is an integral component of Windows 8. Not only does it enable touch browsing on tablets running the new OS, but actually powers some of its new-style Windows 8 apps. Until very recently, IE10 was only available for Windows 8, clearly the focus of development for Microsoft over the past year. But now the hundreds of millions of Windows 7 users can enjoy the new browser's superior speed and standards support. They also don't have to deal with one of the main problems with IE10 on Windows 8, the confusion between two flavors—the full-screen, touch-focused new-style incarnation and the familiar desktop version.

In Windows 8, it's still true that Internet Explorer 10, leads a double life. You can run it as a new-style full screen app or you can run it in the traditional Windows desktop view. Underneath, however, both of these as well as the Windows 7 edition use the same rendering engine. Currenty, the Windows 7 version is dubbed a "preview," and it's available for download from IETestdrive.com.

Internet Explorer 9 improved on version 8 considerably in both speed and support of HTML5 and CSS3 features, but it still was way behind the competition from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera in the standards support department. With IE10, Microsoft's browser not only gets right in the fray with HTML5 and CSS3 support, but even offers features not found in the others, like HTML5 touch input support.

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One gauge of HTML5 readiness is the HTML5Test.com site, which reports a score based on how many HTML5 features it supports, along with bonus points for non-standard-specific extras like video codecs. Out of a possible 500, IE9 earned a score of 138 with 5 bonus points, compared with 448 and 13 bonus for Google Chrome. IE10 changes this picture considerably, with a score of 320 and 6 bonus points.

But that score isn't the whole story. Far from it. HTML5Test.com merely checks  that the feature is recognized, not whether it's correctly implemented. On the IETestdrive site, Microsoft has published dozens of proof-of-concept demos showing exactly what a lot of these HTML5 features can do. You can peruse the IEBlog to read about the tons of work the IE team has done to add bleeding-edge support to the browser. Though it's often stated that Chrome and Firefox are ahead of IE in HTML5 support, some of the test drive demos show that those browsers haven't yet implemented every capability. One example is Touch Events, which lets a webpage respond to gestures.

Atop all those underlying Web technology updates, however, there's an app interface you use to browse the Web, and the main changes here are in the new-style, full-screen version of IE10. Let's look at how this clean, minimalist design, full-screen, touch-friendly new interface handles your daily browsing needs. After that, I'll look at some comparative benchmark numbers.

Continued—Internet Explorer 10's Touch-Centric User Interface>