Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview Available for Download

Microsoft (News - Alert) has released a developer preview of Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) for Windows 7.

Developers will be able to get an update to modern.IE, too. These include a cross-browser, website screenshot service and virtual machine images.

Windows 8.1 and IE11 are scheduled to launch later in 2013. IE 11 has upgrades as part of the "Blue" update to the Windows 8 OS, according to a news report. Features include once again having a start button. There is also a boot-to-desktop option.

Many Web developers use IE for website building, and so IE 11 for Windows 7 has been anticipated among developers and users.

"With IE11 for Windows 7, customers receive all of the performance, security and under-the-hood changes that enable a compatible Web experience. The Developer Preview makes it easier to build exciting Web content that will eventually be available to over 700 million Windows users," IE group program managers Sandeep Singhal and Rob Mauceri said in a blog post.

IE had 55.8 percent of the browser market as of May, according to eWeek. Google (News - Alert) Chrome, on the other hand, continues to gain market share.

Meanwhile, Microsoft says that IE11 is the first browser to natively decode JPG images in real-time on GPUs (graphics processing units.)

“Pages load faster and use less memory, reducing power consumption and improving battery life. IE11 is also the first browser to render text on the GPU," the blog post added. “WebGL support also calls for some of GPU's pixel-pushing prowess. The technology allows browsers to render complex, interactive 2D and 3D scenes.”

IE 11 also includes support for WebGL. That lets Web developers create advanced 2D and 3D experiences through GPU. WebGL is part of the Web developers’ toolkit. It is being used in shopping, real estate, and social networking sites.

In addition, IE11 is the first browser to meet the W3C (News - Alert) Resource Priorities standard. That lets developers set the order for loading a Web page's elements, the blog post said.

There is also support for SPDY network protocol and HTML5 link prefetching and pre-rendering, the blog post adds.

"Internet Explorer 11 enables high-quality, power-efficient HTML5 video without plug-ins," Singhal and Mauceri said on the subject of video. IE11 can also cache video data without writing it to a disk, the pair said.

IE's in-browser developer tools, called F12, are streamlined. Also, the JavaScript engine, Chakra, beats rivals when it comes to WebKit SunSpider.

Browser speed is important, too.

"On Windows 7, IE11 is 4 percent faster than IE10, and nearly 30 percent faster than the nearest competitive browser," Singhal and Mauceri added.