If you are using Windows 7 and no plan to upgrade to Windows 8 any time soon, here is a good news for you. Microsoft has released the final version of IE11 for Windows 7 users, it runs on the same engine of IE11 that is there in Windows 8.1 although some features might vary. Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 11 along with the Windows 8.1 last month. Windows 8.1 is offered as a free upgrade to all Windows 8 users so Windows 8 users won’t get this as they will upgraded sooner or later.
All Windows 7 users will get the IE11, if you have already installed Developer or Release Preview version of the browser you will get it right now, otherwise the latest version of IE will come in phases and within few weeks automatic update will rollout to everyone. You can also download today from Windows IE site.
Microsoft says IE11 for Windows 7 brings the same standards support with improved performance, security, privacy and reliability that consumers enjoy Windows 8.1. IE11 on Windows 7 improves the performance of real-world websites by 9 percent compared to IE10 which is 30 percent faster than other browsers, with faster page loading and faster JavaScript performance.
IE11 brings support 25 modern web standards including support for WebGL. It will natively decode JPEG images in real-time on GPU resulting in faster page load, less memory usage and improved battery life. It also supports HTML5 link prefetching and pre-rendering.
IE11 on Windows 7 is almost the same as on Windows 8.1, the differences include: In Windows 7 the URL bar remains at the top, in Windows 8.1 the URL bar stays at the bottom. Windows 7 version won’t get the new tab view, it won’t support Google’s SPDY protocol.
Windows XP users won’t get the Internet Explorer 11 version. If you are on Windows XP and want the modern browser you need to upgrade to Windows 8 or use Firefox/ Chrome.
