#224 - IE10 its here whether you want it or not

If you are like most Windows users, you have your computer to automatically get Windows updates and install them.  This is recommended by almost all PC experts and PCSS recommends it and has this very set up on ALL our PCs.  We should not have been surprised on March 31 when we discovered that Microsoft had decided that Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) was a necessary Windows update.  But we were.  Actually I did not notice that Internet Explorer(IE) had been updated for a while.  I don't use IE for browsing much on my office PC.  I have Firefox as my default browser and spend much time on Google Chrome.  The latest versions of Firefox and Chrome were better designed and faster then IE9, the last IE version. 

I use IE to go to a few sites that seem to work better with IE.  One of those is the site I use to order computer product.  Imagine my surprise when the page loaded and I couldn't find my old orders or saved orders.  The links for them had disappeared.  I also immediately noticed that the order site looked smaller then usual  - smaller font, buttons, and screen size.  Now I wasn't clueless and immediately clicked on the help button and found that my PC had been updated to IE10.  Once I knew that piece of information I also remembered from one of my Microsoft seminars that there is a compatibility mode button on the address bar that will let me look at a site just like it was in IE9.  I clicked on that (its right next to the refresh button )  and viola everything was back to normal!  I have already helped 3 clients out with this gem this week.

So what is IE10 and is it worth the upgrade?  IE 10 is Microsoft's browser upgrade to go with its new operating system Windows 8.  That is important to remember as we go through the features items.  It will work with Windows 7, but not any other operating system (XP, Vista, 2000 sorry!).  The first and probably most important upgrade is that IE10 is fast.  Its 20%+ faster then IE9 and after doing some checking it is faster then the latest Firefox and is a close 2nd to Google Chrome.  Sites just respond faster.  When it comes to Browser features, speed is on top.  The interface looks very close to IE9.  That is it is very sparse and utilitarian.  Not much showing on the screen.  If you right click in the upper area you can pick the toolbars and features you would like to display.  We just use the menu bar. 

The biggest hyped new feature it the ability to PIN sites to your Windows taskbar.  With this feature you can drag a site you are on to the taskbar (bottom of the screen) and a permanent short cut icon will be located there.  For example we went on facebook and dragged the tab to the taskbar and there is our pinned facebook shortcut.  But wait its more then just a pretty icon.  It can tell you when you have messages, or special friend updates, um just like on your phone!  Ah now it clicks in.  Microsoft was copying the phone interface into Windows.  Not every site can be pinned, but most popular sites seem to work.  You can google IE10 pinned sites to get a list.

There are several cosmetic changes (the right scroll bar works like the one in Windows 8) and several upgrades to the HTML5 language compatibility (geek for IE10 is more compatible with new websites then IE9). Open tabs can be closed without having to open the tab (like Chrome & Firefox have had for years!). There are also some excellent privacy settings that make surfing the web safer.   Many of the changes in IE10 only are shown if you have Windows 8 and a touch screen PC/Tablet. 

So bottom line - Should I upgrade to IE10?  The increased speed and security make me want to say yes.  Being more compatible with HTML5 can only make IE10 a better browser.  We'll keep checking it out, but PCSS will give a YES to this upgrade.