Internet Explorer 9 Installation along with Internet Explorer 8

I downloaded the Internet Explorer Test Drive version from the Microsoft IE test drive website today. Usually, I am very hesitating to download and install any pre release versions of software on my work load, but today I decided to try my luck.

The download was very quick. The download was very quick through Google Chrome (yes, I said Google Chrome!) and the file size was only 16 MB. The downloaded file name was "iepreview.msi". (I wish they had named it something like ie9preview.msi or ie9.0.0.3422 or something like that.)

Well, my first disappointment was, as soon as I launched the installer, it prompted me with a message asking me to reboot! I saved my work and restart the computer hoping everything will be alright and installation will continue without any problems.

It took few minutes to complete the restart process since the installer had to urn some updates for Windows. (My laptop runs Windows 7)



After the restart, I expected the installation to continue automatically, but nothing happened. I located the Internet Explorer 9 preview setup file and started it manually. But this time, to my surprise I got the windows asking me to either Remove or Repair the installation.

This made me think that the installation was actually completed. So, I searched my programs and found an entry called "Internet Explorer Platform Preview". I launched the application expecting a functional, familiar browser window.

What I got was a regular windows application window (or, strange looking browser). There was no address bar to type the url to visit. It opened a web page by default which was http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/.



There were 4 menu entries in the top:

* Page
* Debug
* Report Issue
* Help

I clicked on the first one looking for an option to type the url. The "Open" sub menu under "Page" menu opened a small dialog to type the url to browser. I type "www.MyWindowsClub.com". It opened the web page in almost full screen view, with no space taken for any toolbars. Cool, it look like Google Chrome!



While I understand that this is not a released version of Internet Explorer, I expected a bit more from this. After a bit more analysis, I realized this is not a Internet Explorer 9 release, but it is just a different product called "Internet Explorer Platform Preview". One of the menu options is to view the page in different modes to match with different versions of Internet Explorer, starting from IE5 to IE9.

I am looking forward to see the beta release of Internet Explorer 9. even though this platform preview does not tell me anything about the upcoming features in IE 9, I am eagerly waiting to see it on first hand. I am sure Microsoft will not disappoint us this time. I just hate to say that I am a Chrome lover. So, Microsoft, come up with something great soon.