Internet Explorer 10: Key Features and What Changed from IE9

Internet Explorer 10 — Key Features and What Changed from IE9

Key features in IE10

• Improved standards support: Better HTML5 and CSS3 support (HTML5 Drag & Drop, CSS3 gradients, media queries, enhanced forms).
• Faster JavaScript: Improved Chakra engine performance and background JIT compilation for quicker script execution.
• Hardware acceleration: Broader GPU acceleration for rendering, compositing and video decoding.
• Touch-optimized UI (Windows 8): New “Metro”/Modern UI version with touch gestures, full-screen browsing and integration with the Windows 8 shell.
• Security improvements: Enhanced Protected Mode (sandboxing), SmartScreen filter improvements, and mitigations like ASLR/randomized module loading.
• Power- and resource-efficiency: Optimizations for lower CPU and battery use on tablets and mobile devices.
• Do Not Track enabled by default: DNT header sent by default (user control still possible).
• Automatic updates on Windows 8: Browser received updates through the OS update mechanism.
• Unified rendering engine across environments: Same engine used for desktop and Metro/Modern UI, allowing consistent behavior for web apps.

What changed compared to IE9

• Much stronger HTML5/CSS3 coverage: IE10 closed many gaps left in IE9 (notable additions: Drag & Drop API, File API improvements, more CSS3 modules).
• Better performance: Chakra enhancements and more aggressive hardware acceleration produced measurable speed gains over IE9.
• Touch and Metro support: IE10 introduced a distinct touch-first Metro UI; IE9 had no dedicated modern-touch UI.
• Security and sandboxing: IE10 expanded sandboxing and memory-hardening measures beyond IE9’s protections.
• Power efficiency: IE10 introduced device-oriented optimizations (important for tablets/phones) that IE9 lacked.
• Rendering parity across modes: The same engine and improved standards support reduced discrepancies between desktop and app-style browsing compared with IE9.
• Do Not Track default: IE9 required the user to enable DNT; IE10 sent it by default.

Compatibility and deployment notes

• IE10 shipped with Windows 8 (October 2012) and was later available for Windows 7 (February 2013).
• Enterprise compatibility still required testing; IE10 continued Microsoft’s compatibility legacy (document modes, enterprise features) but pushed developers toward modern web standards.

If you want, I can list the specific HTML5/CSS3 APIs newly supported in IE10 or provide brief migration tips for sites that targeted IE9.