No, Internet Explorer 12 has not been released — yet. This is about Internet Explorer 11 on the Windows 10 Technical Preview. While it’s not a brand new Internet Explorer, Microsoft has still bundled in some brand new performance improvements.
The first is support for the new HTTP/2 protocol. This is a prototype of a revision to the HTTP/1.1 protocol which is more than 15 years old. HTTP/2 is an ongoing project trying to improve performance on end-user perceived latency, network, and server resource usage through multiplexing, header compression, and Server Push.
Second, Internet Explorer on the Windows Technical Preview features improvements to the Chakra JavaScript engine. A JavaScript engine is the part of your browser which interprets JavaScript; Chrome uses Google’s V8, and Microsoft started working on Chakra in Internet Explorer 9. The improvements bundled with Windows 10 include, “streamlining of Chakra’s execution pipeline to deliver faster startup, optimizations in Chakra’s Just-in-Time compiler to increase script execution throughput, and enhancements to Chakra’s Garbage Collection subsystem to deliver better UI responsiveness for apps and sites.”
Third, Internet Explorer on the Technical Preview will be parsing domains using Mozilla’s Public Suffix List. This came as a surprise to me personally, but it makes me hopeful of continued collaboration that makes the web a more universal place.
Lastly, Microsoft has launched the ‘IE Platform Suggestions Box’ on the UserVoice platform for users to provide more feedback. This will ensure that Microsoft prioritizes their work on Internet Explorer inline with what the community wants.
If you want to try out the ‘new’ Internet Explorer, enroll in the Windows Insider Program to install the Windows 10 Technical Preview.
