Microsoft: 2 million IE9 downloads in 2 days

E

Emil

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Microsoft has announced that in two days, over 2 million people worldwide have downloaded the Internet Explorer 9 Beta. The software giant says the number shows great user interest, especially when compared to the Internet Explorer 8 Beta, which launched in August 2008 and had just 1.3 million downloads over the first five days. Redmond also revealed that it has seen 9 million visits and over 26 million page views on its Beauty of the Web website since the beta release last Wednesday, while the developer-focused IE Test Drive Site has had 4 million page views in the same timeframe.

Microsoft released the IE9 beta last week and even we noticed that users were particularly interested: it was one our most highly-trafficked and most-commented articles. Readers had mixed opinions: some complained that the beta crashes often and is completely unusable while others were surprised at its sheer speed and simplified interface. The biggest complaints were the inability to install IE9 on Windows XP as well as the lack of space for having many tabs open.

Microsoft is fighting a very difficult battle with Internet Explorer. IE9 not only needs to be a huge improvement over IE8 (which it is), but it needs to compete well with the third party browsers on Windows if it's going to reverse the overall downward market share spiral IE has been experiencing over the last few years. The software giant still plans on releasing at least one more Platform Preview and a Release Candidate build before the final IE9 release. Have you tried Internet Explorer 9 Beta? What's your take?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/40344-microsoft-2-million-ie9-downloads-in-2-days.html

 
IE9 beta is great! Amazing speed, beutiful interface and very simple to use. But there are obvious drawbacks with it still being in beta, many pages crashes for me all the time, Techspot.com included.
And utilizing flash can be a bit of an issue still... looking forward to html 5, though.
 
I've been using IE since version 2. MS should build it from scratch just like Google has done with Chrome. In all all browsers do crash, just have to live with that glitch. MS likes to make all it's customers be beta testers. MS should go back to the old days of Beta testing, I think it's bad business to get everyone excited over software that is not stable for release yet.
 
I tried this in my windows 7 virtual machine at work and I know I may be the odd man out, but I wish microsoft would port this to Mac. Apple offers Safari on windows and if MS is truly interested in its marketshare, it should offer IE on all platforms. I'd use it.
 
I heard there is no Windows XP version of IE9 beta... will it be any when they go out of beta? because there is still a big Windows XP market out there not willing to move to Vista or 7 they'll be missing.
 
Guest said:
I tried this in my windows 7 virtual machine at work and I know I may be the odd man out, but I wish microsoft would port this to Mac. Apple offers Safari on windows and if MS is truly interested in its marketshare, it should offer IE on all platforms. I'd use it.
Click to expand...
They used to make IE for Mac, but the killed it a while back. I doubt they'll change their stance.
 
Cueto_99 said:
I heard there is no Windows XP version of IE9 beta... will it be any when they go out of beta? because there is still a big Windows XP market out there not willing to move to Vista or 7 they'll be missing.
Click to expand...
No. The latest version for Windows XP users will be IE8.
 
I've been running IE9 beta alongside the Firefox beta and release version of Chrome. I'm really excited about an IE9 release. The colored group tabs feature is awesome. It is indeed a much more modern browsing experience. As others have said, I just wish it were more stable.
 
My take? Well, IE9 won't allow me to have one! After installing all of the prerequisites on Vista and then installing IE9, IE crashes upon startup! I haven't been able to surf a single page. Furthermore, if I unplug and then plug back in my laptop charger (moving from room to room), the display driver dies a horrible death and gives me a pretty blue screen (so much for running the display driver in user mode rather than kernel mode!). Uninstalling IE9 fixes the display driver problem though. So, I guess my take is that something is complete garbage. Either the Vista updates, IE9, or an unfortunate combination of both.
 
that's a first for me, and maybe why so many people have downloaded IE9 if i'm not the only one, is that it downloaded with Windows Update without ever asking me if I wanted to or not.... WTF?!?! It's a BETA!!!

Runs good anyways...
 
@tipstir

Totally agree with it, but what fun it would be if you can't get your hands dirty with some 'betas' every now and then? ;)

I've been using FF4B6 and IE9(B?) ......... and so far I am impressed with both, interestingly IE9B haven't yet crashed on me (but its only just now so lets give it enough time to crash :D), whereas, FF4B6 crashes whenever it feels the need to do so.
 
Cueto_99

IE9 has GPU acceleration which requires Direct2d.

Windows XP has never supported Direct2d as its new and will never.

So its either stick to IE8 or use Chrome or FF on your XP box.


Or here's a big one upgrade the OS and use something that is stable and current!
 
I tried to install the 64 bit version - downloaded the pre-requisite "pathces" - installed them but still it will not install - keeps telling me it needs to get some patches from the internet but fails to download them. If it is that hard just to get it installed then I can certainly do without it - hell I have been doing without it for 15 years!!!! Back to Google Chrome.
 
I've been using the 64bit version with the 64bit flash player square and it works great. Not sure whats going on at your end.
 
Never download a Microsoft Beta. If one does, a complete reinstall will most likely be the outcome.
 
Installed it and it immediately crashed a third party web application which is compatible with IE8. :-(
 
I had the same experience as Wagan8r.

Loop, crash, loop, crash.

It least it doesn't crash the pc - just IE9 will not run.

I have Vista Premium on a 1 year old Name Brand laptop will all the latest drivers and windows updates performed. Have a clean registry and have tried it with antuvirus on and off.

I installed and used as an admin.

This product works fine on my big Windows 7 64 bit ultimate edition

To get this thing off- one must go to programs and features and choose "view windows updates" and choose uninstall ie9 rather than the normal remove a program feature
 
That's pretty funny..

"Never download a Microsoft Beta. If one does, a complete reinstall will most likely be the outcome."

Every version of Windows I have used since 1.1 has been a beta. Just because it has a retail package, does not mean it isn't still a beta. Until a Windows OS has about 3 years of production, it's still basically a beta.

As far as reinstalls, yeah, it's all part of the Windows experience.
That's why a ton of us MS OS users, backup our boxes frequently, and create
an image, to roll back to. No, System Restore is not perfect either.

If you actually purchase a Windows OS, you are paying to beta test. Use at your own risk.
 
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