Microsoft unleashes Spartan with latest Windows 10 preview build

Scorpus

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microsoft spartan windows internet explorer preview beta browser windows 10 project spartan

Microsoft has released a new Windows 10 Technical Preview build to those on the fast track release channel, and this update brings with it the company's highly anticipated Project Spartan browser. Build 10049 is just a week newer than the previous build, 10041, so Spartan is really the only major feature to be included with the update.

Project Spartan features an entirely new and much more modern interface, which you can see above thanks to our friends at Neowin. The web browser also features a new, more streamlined rendering engine called Edge, bringing greater web compatibility and better performance across the board.

Cortana is one of the main features included with Spartan, allowing you to search the web and access additional information with your voice. Reading List and Reading View are handy tools that help you collect and view webpages you want to read later in a distraction-free environment. Spartan also introduces inking support, allowing you to annotate, save and share webpages.

Microsoft wants to make it clear that Project Spartan included with Windows 10 build 10049 is not polished, and not ready for the general public. However it has already replaced Internet Explorer 11 as the default browser in Windows 10, and is clearly being positioned as the future of Microsoft's web browser platform.

For those of you running the Windows 10 Technical Preview, you can update to build 10049 through Windows Update right now.

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Like I said when Spartan was first revealed, it's nothing more that a touch friendly browser with a new render engine (should have just stuck that in IE11).

Look at who much spaced is wasted above and below the text on the title bar. Same thing for the address bar too. It's like they decided that no font could be under 14 pt and no object could be under 20 pixels wide and square. It couldn't be more obvious that these design changes are not to make it easier for desktop users.

I'll stick with firefox and chrome.
 
Microsoft's take on web browsing has been like inventing a new wheel. They started with a triangular design, then later on moved to a square one, IE-11 is a perfect hexagon, and Spartan with Cortana is a hexagon with a square inside. Not that there is anything wrong with a round wheel, so I will stick with Chrome for the time being.
 
Woah, hate for a browser that hasn't been used by 99% of people and hated from a screen shot without being used?

So Spartan is basically an alpha and from what I have read is a ground up redesign focusing on a good user experience and huge compatibility support regardless of the website age or coding...... isn't that what people have been asking MS to do for 10 years?

Think this is going to be a good year for MS and PC hardware......definitely an upgrade this year
 
Looking forward to checking this out first hand.. Once I get my other rig back up and running with the Win10 Preview, I'll have to give it a go.
 
LOL. The rendering engine is the heart of any browser. Anyway, I am so glad you already have your mind set.

The point of my comment was that the rendering engine could be used with any other UI, they could have just included it in previous versions of IE. Your sarcastic comment is merely trolling
 
Woah, hate for a browser that hasn't been used by 99% of people and hated from a screen shot without being used?

So Spartan is basically an alpha and from what I have read is a ground up redesign focusing on a good user experience and huge compatibility support regardless of the website age or coding...... isn't that what people have been asking MS to do for 10 years?

Think this is going to be a good year for MS and PC hardware......definitely an upgrade this year

I'm guessing this is towards my comment as it's the only one that has been critical thus far in the comments.

My comment only dealt with what I could see. I didn't comment on the rendering engine or anything like that. It may be an early alpha build but they aren't going to change overall design decisions like the touch friendly over-haul. It's a good thing that PC users can switch browsers.
 
Thats the great thing with Windows 10 over previous version, it is all scalable depending on the device used..... start menu for example.

My money is on MS having a different UI for both.
 
Like I said when Spartan was first revealed, it's nothing more that a touch friendly browser with a new render engine (should have just stuck that in IE11).

Look at who much spaced is wasted above and below the text on the title bar. Same thing for the address bar too. It's like they decided that no font could be under 14 pt and no object could be under 20 pixels wide and square. It couldn't be more obvious that these design changes are not to make it easier for desktop users.

I'll stick with firefox and chrome.

Or maybe people don't like squinting or leaning forward to read the title? It's VI friendly.
 
I want to see and use it on the desktop before I criticise it. I couldn't be less interested in the mobile version, I don't plan on buying any MS mobile devices anytime in the future.
 
Graphically Win10 is a step backwards. All those square corners and solid colors and they still think it's an advancement?
I'm less concerned with the graphical style (which will be customize-able to some degree no doubt with Aero/Themes type options) and more concerned with where they might have hidden options/menus and configurations between charm bars, start menu, context menus and so on.

I don't think any rearrangement since XP or perhaps even before has been any better than the previous arrangement. It's like someone sorting something alphabetically, then someone coming along and sorting it by colour just because. I've almost begun to believe that options/features are moved just to make you trawl through all the exciting new bells and whistles while digging around to locate them.
 
Like I said when Spartan was first revealed, it's nothing more that a touch friendly browser with a new render engine (should have just stuck that in IE11).

Look at who much spaced is wasted above and below the text on the title bar. Same thing for the address bar too. It's like they decided that no font could be under 14 pt and no object could be under 20 pixels wide and square. It couldn't be more obvious that these design changes are not to make it easier for desktop users.

I'll stick with firefox and chrome.
Well we still have a long way to go before its even finalised and polished so thanks for the preliminary opinion
 
I want to see and use it on the desktop before I criticise it. I couldn't be less interested in the mobile version, I don't plan on buying any MS mobile devices anytime in the future.

I installed build 10049 and I think it works quite well on the Deskrop. My only complain is the list view for your favorites icons. Each favorite displays a fairly large "wire frame" globe icon and the site name next to it --- clearly beneficial for touch. But this is something that can be changed based on user feedback as the preview code progresses.
 
I just installed Windows 10, build 10041(I think) approximately 48 hours ago. Let me say first of all the UI still appears to be a complete catastrophe and, with much reckless abandon, in my opinion, still catering towards the tween masses.

None the less, I just built a new computer and decided to install Windows 10 to see if there was any hope of using it.. Once you have a preview build installed does it update automatically to the latest builds? I am interested in this Spartan browser if for no other reason than the ability to mark up the markup. I've thought it would always be cool to highlight specific parts of webpages for others to see without making them think they have to read it all.

Hopefully, the idea of marking up markup will spill over into the other browsers capabilities as well. Anybody know anything about that?

I am pretty sure I could not tolerate Windows 10 UI as my main system on a daily basis so hopefully this idea won't be exclusive to Windows 10 Spartan browser.
 
Or maybe people don't like squinting or leaning forward to read the title? It's VI friendly.

I would be inclined to believe this had chrome and firefox not already had text scaling built in and if I was referring to the font size, not the UI element spacing. In either chrome or IE you can increase the font size if need be.

I can understand a bit of spacing to make it more readable on lower resolution screen and tablets and hopefully they will include options to adjust this on desktop windows machines.
 
"Project Spartan features an entirely new and much more modern interface, which you can see above thanks toour friends at Neowin."

Oh God yes, its so much more modern. It oozes with moderness. So much so, that I wanna vomit. Square corners are all the rage these days.

I'm less concerned with the graphical style (which will be customize-able to some degree no doubt with Aero/Themes type options) and more concerned with where they might have hidden options/menus and configurations between charm bars, start menu, context menus and so on.

I don't think any rearrangement since XP or perhaps even before has been any better than the previous arrangement. It's like someone sorting something alphabetically, then someone coming along and sorting it by colour just because. I've almost begun to believe that options/features are moved just to make you trawl through all the exciting new bells and whistles while digging around to locate them.

To summarize what you said perfectly, it's change for changes sakes alone. So they can call it Windows 10(LOL) instead of Windows 8.123469 which is what it should be called.
 
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