Internet Explorer 9 or IE9 (officially Windows Internet Explorer 9) is the ninth major version of the Internet Explorer web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on March 14, 2011 as the successor to Internet Explorer 8, at which time its supported operating systems were Windows 7 (and its server counterpart Windows Server 2008 R2), and Windows Vista SP2 (and its server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 SP2) with the Platform Update. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 as a major out-of-band version that was not tied to the release schedule of any particular version of Windows, unlike previous versions. It is the first version of Internet Explorer not to be bundled with a Windows operating system, although some OEMs have installed it with Windows on their PCs. Additionally, it is the first version of Internet Explorer to remove Itanium processor support.
Internet Explorer 9 supports ECMAScript 5 (ES5), several CSS 3 properties, and embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System, and has improved JavaScript performance. It was the last of the major web browsers to implement support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).W3C: SVG Plugin for IE It also features hardware-accelerated graphics rendering using Direct2D, hardware-accelerated text rendering using DirectWrite, hardware-accelerated video rendering using Media Foundation, imaging support provided by Windows Imaging Component, and high fidelity printing powered by the XML Paper Specification (XPS) print pipeline. Internet Explorer 9 also supports the HTML media tags and and the Web Open Font Format (WOFF).
It was the last version to be called Windows Internet Explorer before its name was changed to Internet Explorer starting with the release of Internet Explorer 10. It is also the last version to support Windows 7 RTM, Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM, Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 before these versions reached end of support on April 9, 2013, April 11, 2017, and January 13, 2026 respectively. It is also the last version of Internet Explorer supporting processors which lacked the NX bit instruction set.
History Development
Development of Internet Explorer 9 began shortly after Internet Explorer 8 was released. Microsoft began taking features suggestions through Microsoft Connect soon after Internet Explorer 8 was released. The Internet Explorer team focused on improving support and performance for HTML5, CSS3, SVG, XHTML, JavaScript, hardware acceleration, and the user interface featuring agility and "a clean new design".
Microsoft first announced Internet Explorer 9 at PDC 2009 and spoke mainly about how it takes advantage of hardware acceleration in DirectX to improve the performance of web applications and improve the quality of web typography.
Later, Microsoft announced that they had joined the W3C's SVG Working Group, which sparked speculation that Internet Explorer 9 will support the SVG W3C recommendation. This was proven to be true at MIX 10, where they demonstrated support for basic SVG markup and improved support for HTML5. They also announced that they would increase the support greatly by the time the first Internet Explorer 9 Beta was released. The Internet Explorer team also introduced the new JavaScript engine for 32-bit Internet Explorer 9, codenamed Chakra, which uses Just-in-time compilation to execute JavaScript as native code. In mid-September 2011, the Acid3 test was revised to remove a few "antiquated and unusual" tests, and as a result, IE9 now passes the test with a score of 100/100.
At MIX 10, the first Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was released, which featured support for CSS3 and SVG, a new JavaScript engine called Chakra, and a score of 55/100 on the Acid3 test, up from 20/100 for Internet Explorer 8. On May 5, 2010, the second Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was released, which featured a score of 68/100 on the Acid3 test and faster performance on the WebKit SunSpider JavaScript benchmark than the first Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. On June 23, 2010, the third Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was released, which featured a score of 83/100 on the Acid3 test and a faster JavaScript engine than the second Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. The third Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview also includes support for audio, video, and canvas tags, and WOFF. On August 4, 2010, the fourth Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was released, which features a score of 95/100 on the Acid3 test and a faster JavaScript engine than the third Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. On September 15, 2010, the Internet Explorer 9 Public Beta was released alongside Platform Preview 5, featuring a new user interface. In contrast to the previews, the Beta replaces any previously installed version of Internet Explorer. The sixth Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was released on October 28, 2010, and includes support for CSS 2D transforms and HTML semantic elements. The seventh Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview was released on November 17, 2010, and features better JavaScript performance.
These previews were not full builds of Internet Explorer 9, as they were for testing the latest version of the MSHTML (Trident) browser engine. They were for web developers to send feedback on the improvements made, functioned in parallel with any other installed browsers, and were previews of the renderer technology only, containing minimalistic user interfaces and lacking traditional interface elements such as an address bar and navigation buttons. Microsoft updated these previews approximately every eight weeks.
On November 23, 2010, two updates for the Internet Explorer 9 Public Beta were released. KB2448827 brings improvements to reliability and fixes stability issues from the previous beta release. There are not much details of resolved issues disclosed by Microsoft. Moreover, KB2452648 resolves the in-built feedback issue with Internet Explorer 9 and the latest version of Windows Live Sign-in Assistant. These updates can be fetched from Windows Update or the Microsoft Download Center website. On the same day, Internet Explorer build 9.0.8027.6000 based on Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 7 was leaked. On February 10, 2011, the Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate and Platform Preview 8 were released. The Release Candidate version featured improved performance, a Tracking Protection feature, a refined UI, support for more web standards, use of hardware accelerated graphics, and other improvements.
The final version of Internet Explorer 9 was publicly released during the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, on March 14, 2011.
Release history Name Build Release date Acid3 Score New features Platform Preview 1 1.9.7745.6019 March 16, 2010 55/100 Support for CSS3 and SVG and a new JavaScript engine called Chakra. Platform Preview 2 1.9.7766.6000 May 5, 2010 68/100 Better JavaScript performance. Platform Preview 3 1.9.7874.6000 June 23, 2010 83/100 audio, video, and canvas tags, and WOFF. Platform Preview 4 1.9.7916.6000 August 4, 2010 95/100JavaScript engine integrated into the core browser components, a shared DOM between the browser and the script engine based on ECMAScript5, and a highly interactive and integrated SVG. Platform Preview 5 1.9.7930.16406 September 15, 2010 New icon. Beta 9.0.7930.16406 New user interface, download manager, and Pinned Sites with jumplist functionality. Platform Preview 6 1.9.8006.6000 October 28, 2010 CSS 2D transforms and HTML semantic tags. Platform Preview 7 1.9.8023.6000 November 17, 2010 Better JavaScript performance. Platform Preview 8 1.9.8080.16413 February 10, 2011 Performance, interoperability enhancements, and support for the W3C Geolocation API. Release Candidate 9.0.8080.16413 Improved performance, InPrivate Filtering renamed to Tracking Protection, a refined UI, support for more web standards, the option to add a new tab row, and other improvements. RTM 9.0.8112.16421 March 14, 2011 100/100 Improved performance, improved Tracking Protection, and the option to pin multiple targets per page. Last version for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
End of life Support for Internet Explorer 9 on most Windows versions ended on January 12, 2016, when Microsoft began requiring customers to use the latest version of Internet Explorer available for each Windows version. For versions of Windows where Internet Explorer 9 was the final version of Internet Explorer available, support ended when support for that version of Windows ended. On January 14, 2020, Microsoft released the final regular IE9 update. However, IE9 (via Windows Server 2008) is eligible for the paid ESU (Extended Security Updates) and Premium Assurance programs. ESU security updates from Microsoft for IE9 were released until January 10, 2023 (January 9, 2024, for Azure customers) and Premium Assurance security updates were continued until January 13, 2026. Following which, only IE11 (the final version of Internet Explorer) will continue to be supported in any capacity.
Changes from previous versions
User Interface Internet Explorer 9 includes significant alterations to its user interface when compared with previous versions. These include: Pinned Sites:Pinning , Beauty of the Web. Integrates with the taskbar to make web site experience more like an application where users may "pin" a site and then return to it later like a shortcut. In the release candidate, users can pin a site and add more homepages to that site (e.g., pin Facebook and add Twitter as another homepage to that pinned site, so it would become a social "hub" of sorts). These special shortcuts can also be created by dragging the favicon from the address bar to the Desktop or to a folder in Windows Explorer; instead of the usual .url file extension, Pinned Sites use .website instead. Security-enabled Download Manager: Manages file transfers and can pause and resume downloads and informs if a file may be malicious. Enhanced Tabs and Tab Page: The new tab page can show most visited sites, and tabs are shown next to the address bar (there is an option to have a separate row, like in Internet Explorer 8) with the feature of closing an inactive tab. Tabs can be "torn off" from the current window, which means they can be dragged up and down to be moved from one IE window to another. This also ties in with the Aero Snap feature. Add-on Performance Advisor: Shows which third-party add-ons may be slowing down browser performance and then allows the option to disable or remove them. Compact user interface: Includes the removal of the separate search box found in Internet Explorer 7 and 8;What's new in Internet Explorer 9? windows.microsoft.com also removed is the tab menu list found in Internet Explorer 8.
Scripting
JavaScript engine
Internet Explorer 9 (32-bit) features a faster JavaScript engine than Internet Explorer 8's, internally known as Chakra. Chakra has a separate background thread for compiling JavaScript. Windows runs that thread in parallel on a separate core when one is available. Compiling in the background enables users to keep interacting with webpages while Internet Explorer 9 generates even faster code. By running separately in the background, this process can take advantage of modern multi-core machines.