The makers of Chrome and Firefox used to regularly castigate Internet Explorer for not being a "modern" Web browser. Those days are over, with even Google admitting this by retiring its Chrome Frame product. IE 11 made its debut on Windows 8.1, but it's also available for the more widely used Windows 7, which still runs on the vast majority of PCs. Microsoft's latest Web browser is fast, has a lean interface, and is compliant with new standards. It even leads in some areas, such as graphics hardware acceleration and touch input. In fact, it's so much faster, leaner, and more secure than previous versions that former users who left it behind may want to give it another try.

Installation

Internet Explorer 11 requires Windows 7 with Service Pack 1; navigate to the IE download page to get the new browser. IE11 has low system requirements—a 233MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a Super VGA graphics adapter, and 70MB of hard disk space—so it should run comfortably on older PCs.

Unlike the other major browsers, an upgrade/install of IE does involve a reboot, since it's akin to a system update. But when you first run IE11, as with Firefox, you can simply start browsing; neither pushes you to sign into an online account the way Chrome does. The one thing you have to do is choose whether to use SmartScreen protection and send Do Not Track messages to sites. This is better handled than in previous IE versions; most people didn't bother running the initial settings wizard, so it would pop up every time the browser started.

Interface

Upgraders from IE10 or even IE9 will be hard-pressed to notice any changes in the browser's interface. It's actually even lower key than Chrome's, with the narrowest window frame across the top of any browser, since it places the search bar on the same row as the tabs.