Hope it plays nice and uninstalls.

I'd also be curious to see what an enabled favorites bar and the feed list (if there still is one) look like.

PS: I'm seeing some screenshots with the address box much smaller that in others. Is there a draggable splitter between that and the tabs? If so that might alleviate some of the loss of space.

I have gone through program files to ensure that I am using the 32 bit version, that does not work like the 64 bit version.

The installation was quicker than anticipated, still, I hate having to reboot (somebody will say that it is part of the OS - but I still dislike it)

It failed to retain my default search engine, and set me back to MSN.

I like the new design, looks great on windows 7, and I like the fact that the search box now takes about  4/6ths of the top level, it feels natural

The home button has dissapeared, you can always show the command bar as of IE8, but I still don't think I like the metro style chopped back button. Chrome and Firefox have managed to be attractive without such drastic UI changes, and I think it will be like marmite (which I deplore, by the way)

DCMonkey said:

I don't feel like installing it. Could you check if the tabs can be moved to their own row? I like everything else I've read about IE9 except the new positioning of the tabs. I'm quite likely to switch to Chrome full time if they can't be put somewhere with more horizontal space.

 

I'd also be curious to see what an enabled favorites bar and the feed list (if there still is one) look like.

 

PS: I'm seeing some screenshots with the address box much smaller that in others. Is there a draggable splitter between that and the tabs? If so that might alleviate some of the loss of space.

The tabs are very 'chromey' in that you can drag them around and tear them off.  I don't know what you mean about creating a new row -- how do you do that in Chrome?

Herbie

vesuvius said:

First thoughts; I cannot post anything in IE9 (so am using firefox), is is almost as if TinyMCE does not allow focus into the channel 9 text control)...anyone repro?

 

I have gone through program files to ensure that I am using the 32 bit version, that does not work like the 64 bit version.

 

The installation was quicker than anticipated, still, I hate having to reboot (somebody will say that it is part of the OS - but I still dislike it)

 

It failed to retain my default search engine, and set me back to MSN.

 

I like the new design, looks great on windows 7, and I like the fact that the search box now takes about  4/6ths of the top level, it feels natural

 

The home button has dissapeared, you can always show the command bar as of IE8, but I still don't think I like the metro style chopped back button. Chrome and Firefox have managed to be attractive without such drastic UI changes, and I think it will be like marmite (which I deplore, by the way)

You're right -- can't activate the edit box.  I'm posting from Chrome.

Herbie

Dr Herbie said:

DCMonkey said:

*snip*

The tabs are very 'chromey' in that you can drag them around and tear them off.  I don't know what you mean about creating a new row -- how do you do that in Chrome?

 

Herbie

 

That's a no to a second row of tabs, though it does seem really fast and the docking/undocking of tabs is done very well, I like.

Also unable to post to C9!

Dr Herbie said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

You're right -- can't activate the edit box.  I'm posting from Chrome.

 

Herbie

 

This happens also from iPhone/iPad.

CHARLES MAKE IT WORK!

Dr Herbie said:

DCMonkey said:

*snip*

The tabs are very 'chromey' in that you can drag them around and tear them off.  I don't know what you mean about creating a new row -- how do you do that in Chrome?

 

Herbie

 

I mean position that tabs so that there isn't an address bar to the left  of them taking up the space that two or more tabs could.

Dr Herbie said:

DCMonkey said:

*snip*

The tabs are very 'chromey' in that you can drag them around and tear them off.  I don't know what you mean about creating a new row -- how do you do that in Chrome?

 

Herbie

 

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot, but you can pin a tab to the taskbar, just by dragging it.

I also think that it would be nice to have the tabs on a second row, but to save viewing space (which tey seem to be going for), I would swap the tabs and the searchbox position because it feels more natural to have your tabs on the left. I think it the single most important change they need to make.

I also think the buttons are pixelated when they turn yellow and nowhere near as clear when green

vesuvius said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot, but you can pin a tab to the taskbar, just by dragging it.

 

I also think that it would be nice to have the tabs on a second row, but to save viewing space (which tey seem to be going for), I would swap the tabs and the searchbox position because it feels more natural to have your tabs on the left. I think it the single most important change they need to make.

 

I also think the buttons are pixelated when they turn yellow and nowhere near as clear when green

 

I like the address bar on the left.  What I would like is the address bar to auto expand and push all my tabs hard to the right.

Marketing fail.. this site looks really great when you go there in IE9 http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/ you have to force it into compat mode.I take this back, it works now.

PerfectPhase said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

I like the address bar on the left.  What I would like is the address bar to auto expand and push all my tabs hard to the right.

 

Marketing fail.. this site looks really great when you go there in IE9 http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/ you have to force it into compat mode.I take this back, it works now.

 

I guess they need a way to allow users to customise the initial position of the searchbox and the tabs. In this day and age features like this should be included, as they are not difficult to add or implement. I don't want to do a like for like comparison, but firefox has allowed you to control your tabs for some time now. I still use IE8 daily now, because like IE9, it has a luxurious feel to it, it's only not being able to post that has made me use firefox.

I like the balance they ended up with the Win 7 taskbar after beta. I never hide the labels and have my taskbar like it was in Vista. Less RSI for my mouse hand. I hope these changes can be pencilled in.

A quick gadabout the options screen shows nothing immediately perceptible as different, nothing at all.

PerfectPhase said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

 

That's a no to a second row of tabs, though it does seem really fast and the docking/undocking of tabs is done very well, I like.

 

Also unable to post to C9!

IE team in UI fail shocker. Not.

PerfectPhase said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

I like the address bar on the left.  What I would like is the address bar to auto expand and push all my tabs hard to the right.

 

Marketing fail.. this site looks really great when you go there in IE9 http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/ you have to force it into compat mode.I take this back, it works now.

 

Ugh - hate the address bar on the left.  Two issues with it:

1) Reduces tab space.  This will really suck on netbooks.

2) I frequently re-use open tabs by selecting the tab, then quickly mousing down and clicking to highlight the address bar, then using autocomplete in chrome to resolve the link.  With IE9, now I'm moving the mouse all the way back to the left address bar, there's a lot of wasted movement.

Speaking of wasted, all that vertical space.  Really, what is being saved here in terms of real estate with this decision?  It didn't make any sense in the leaked screenshot, and it makes less sense in actual use.  The advantage of Chrome when maximized is even more pronounced, there's no possibly to overshoot your tab vertically, as they're all on the top.  Getting used to that then going back to other browsers is a little obnoxious.

Another potential drawback - DirectWrite rendering.  Geez, with certain fonts on some sites it just looks...odd - like it's trying to be more typographically "correct" like MacOSX but just looks like a grayer version of Cleartype with its sometimes more defined, but more "computerized" look of fonts.  It can look better in spots (particularly for medium-sized fonts where Cleartype would not seem to anti-alias them at all), but it's really hit or miss.   Here are some comparisons (embedded images don't work here like 99% of other web forums):

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3623/safarimediumtextrenderi.png

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2774/ie9defaultrendering.png

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6/safarilighttextrenderin.png

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6325/chromerendering.png

On the plus size, very, very speedy.  Opening tabs now has no hesitation, sites pop up, scrolling is extremely smooth (Chrome really needs to get with the program here).  Really can't seem to bog it down.  Download manager -yes, yes, yes.

Very preliminary results so far obviously, but I can't say I'll navigate away from Chrome at this point.  Chrome still has the superior interface IMO, and while I really like the smooth scrolling, by the time Chrome7 hits they may just have that as well.

over all i like the speed

but i do not think i can look at a CUT OFF back button....  that's enough to make me stop using it right there...

(im assuming it was designed this way - going behind the front display area...  - or im hoping i have a glitch

the buttons also look like bad - 1992 clip art...  wtf

- dont cut off the F/B buttons

- Leave them glass or something cool  ... not CURRENT

fast tho....

actually - the right 3 icons...   i guess we couldnt make those look like amazing 3d icons in colour - that do something when you mouse over them..?

or is this Wingdings look what youre after?

NitzWalsh said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

Ugh - hate the address bar on the left.  Two issues with it:

 

1) Reduces tab space.  This will really suck on netbooks.

2) I frequently re-use open tabs by selecting the tab, then quickly mousing down and clicking to highlight the address bar, then using autocomplete in chrome to resolve the link.  With IE9, now I'm moving the mouse all the way back to the left address bar, there's a lot of wasted movement.

 

Speaking of wasted, all that vertical space.  Really, what is being saved here in terms of real estate with this decision?  It didn't make any sense in the leaked screenshot, and it makes less sense in actual use.  The advantage of Chrome when maximized is even more pronounced, there's no possibly to overshoot your tab vertically, as they're all on the top.  Getting used to that then going back to other browsers is a little obnoxious.

 

Another potential drawback - DirectWrite rendering.  Geez, with certain fonts on some sites it just looks...odd - like it's trying to be more typographically "correct" like MacOSX but just looks like a grayer version of Cleartype with its sometimes more defined, but more "computerized" look of fonts.  It can look better in spots (particularly for medium-sized fonts where Cleartype would not seem to anti-alias them at all), but it's really hit or miss.   Here are some comparisons (embedded images don't work here like 99% of other web forums):

 

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3623/safarimediumtextrenderi.png

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2774/ie9defaultrendering.png

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6/safarilighttextrenderin.png

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6325/chromerendering.png

 

 

On the plus size, very, very speedy.  Opening tabs now has no hesitation, sites pop up, scrolling is extremely smooth (Chrome really needs to get with the program here).  Really can't seem to bog it down.  Download manager -yes, yes, yes.

 

Very preliminary results so far obviously, but I can't say I'll navigate away from Chrome at this point.  Chrome still has the superior interface IMO, and while I really like the smooth scrolling, by the time Chrome7 hits they may just have that as well.

 

 

Very good comparison with the font's, your are completely correct, the text rendering is very inconsistent, it is worth copying the URL's just to have a look if you are reading this post.

I have not used chrome that much since the first beta, so I cannot vouch for it being best, looks like I need to do some howework.

Also: why hasn't anybody come up with vertical tabs yet? What with wide screens more or less being the norm now you need that vertical space more than the horizontal space. Just put the row of tabs on the right (left for right-to-left reading folks), and you've got valuable vertical real estate saved for a few measly horizontal pixels. It could be the next browser revolution.

Bas said:

Does this install next to IE8 or does it replace it entirely? Also has anyone found the keynote or whatever that live stream was of as an on demand video yet?

 

Also: why hasn't anybody come up with vertical tabs yet? What with wide screens more or less being the norm now you need that vertical space more than the horizontal space. Just put the row of tabs on the right (left for right-to-left reading folks), and you've got valuable vertical real estate saved for a few measly horizontal pixels. It could be the next browser revolution.

Replaces IE8.  You can un-install it though.

NitzWalsh said:

Bas said:

*snip*

Replaces IE8.  You can un-install it though.

Oh, the edit box works now, can reply in IE9

Also the history dropdown has disapared from next to the navigation buttons, that kind of sucks.  EDIT: no it hasn't just right click on the back button.

PerfectPhase said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

I like the address bar on the left.  What I would like is the address bar to auto expand and push all my tabs hard to the right.

 

Marketing fail.. this site looks really great when you go there in IE9 http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/ you have to force it into compat mode.I take this back, it works now.

 

You can squeeze the tabs pretty hard by resizing the address/search bar (incidentally, they didn't change the shortcut, it's still ALT+D), and the setting will stick for any new browser window you open later.

P.S.: if someone would like to install IE9b1 but doesn't want to have to install another browser just to post here: the Developer tools in IE9 allow you to quickly set IE9 in IE8/7 emulation mode. This dull post is proof that it works.

PerfectPhase said:

NitzWalsh said:

*snip*

Oh, the edit box works now, can reply in IE9

 

Also the history dropdown has disapared from next to the navigation buttons, that kind of sucks.  EDIT: no it hasn't just right click on the back button.

not here

did you have to end process on browser?

PerfectPhase said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

 

That's a no to a second row of tabs, though it does seem really fast and the docking/undocking of tabs is done very well, I like.

 

Also unable to post to C9!

I am having problem posting on C9 since IE7 and IE8 LOL

I actually have issues login in too, on IE8 ofc.

NitzWalsh said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

Ugh - hate the address bar on the left.  Two issues with it:

 

1) Reduces tab space.  This will really suck on netbooks.

2) I frequently re-use open tabs by selecting the tab, then quickly mousing down and clicking to highlight the address bar, then using autocomplete in chrome to resolve the link.  With IE9, now I'm moving the mouse all the way back to the left address bar, there's a lot of wasted movement.

 

Speaking of wasted, all that vertical space.  Really, what is being saved here in terms of real estate with this decision?  It didn't make any sense in the leaked screenshot, and it makes less sense in actual use.  The advantage of Chrome when maximized is even more pronounced, there's no possibly to overshoot your tab vertically, as they're all on the top.  Getting used to that then going back to other browsers is a little obnoxious.

 

Another potential drawback - DirectWrite rendering.  Geez, with certain fonts on some sites it just looks...odd - like it's trying to be more typographically "correct" like MacOSX but just looks like a grayer version of Cleartype with its sometimes more defined, but more "computerized" look of fonts.  It can look better in spots (particularly for medium-sized fonts where Cleartype would not seem to anti-alias them at all), but it's really hit or miss.   Here are some comparisons (embedded images don't work here like 99% of other web forums):

 

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3623/safarimediumtextrenderi.png

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2774/ie9defaultrendering.png

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6/safarilighttextrenderin.png

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6325/chromerendering.png

 

 

On the plus size, very, very speedy.  Opening tabs now has no hesitation, sites pop up, scrolling is extremely smooth (Chrome really needs to get with the program here).  Really can't seem to bog it down.  Download manager -yes, yes, yes.

 

Very preliminary results so far obviously, but I can't say I'll navigate away from Chrome at this point.  Chrome still has the superior interface IMO, and while I really like the smooth scrolling, by the time Chrome7 hits they may just have that as well.

 

 

Looks like the WPF's dreaded random bits and pieces of black letters that look like gray problem is here for web browsers. I'm sure it looks splendid at 200 DPI+, anyone at MS care to send me a free sample monitor. I'd like 24-26" 200 DPI+ with OLED and 100+ hz refresh. If you can make it scale all lower resolutions properly *at comparable latency to CRT* that's nice. Thought so! Think I'll keep my CRT and insist the Team fixes the fonts!

IE Team PLS. add Sync Bookmark with Live Account

All Windows PC -> Smartphone WP7.

PLS PLS!!

and Congrat !!!!

^DA

androidi said:

NitzWalsh said:

*snip*

 

Looks like the WPF's dreaded random bits and pieces of black letters that look like gray problem is here for web browsers. I'm sure it looks splendid at 200 DPI+, anyone at MS care to send me a free sample monitor. I'd like 24-26" 200 DPI+ with OLED and 100+ hz refresh. If you can make it scale all lower resolutions properly *at comparable latency to CRT* that's nice. Thought so! Think I'll keep my CRT and insist the Team fixes the fonts!

 

 

 

 

c9team...can you post in ie9?

signed - firefox

jamie said:

androidi said:

*snip*

c9team...can you post in ie9?

 

signed - firefox

I can't, so I'm sure how anyone else is managing to

Duncanma said:

jamie said:

*snip*

I can't, so I'm sure how anyone else is managing to

Works a treat here, didn't at first.  I'll go try another machine.  Going to sound silly but the the only thing I changed was updating my nvidia drivers after they kept crashing while using IE9

PerfectPhase said:

Duncanma said:

*snip*

Works a treat here, didn't at first.  I'll go try another machine.  Going to sound silly but the the only thing I changed was updating my nvidia drivers after they kept crashing while using IE9

ohhh. silly me.. dint think to upgrade my video drivers to post on c9

PerfectPhase said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

 

That's a no to a second row of tabs, though it does seem really fast and the docking/undocking of tabs is done very well, I like.

 

Also unable to post to C9!

I love that the "New Tab" speed is fast <== something I have been complaining for the longest time.

However, Google Chrome's [Tab Bar] and [Address Bar] placement is still better in my opinion.

IE9's style makes the Address Bar shrink so much that you can't read the whole URL, which I hate.

Plus, it is easier to click on a tab in Google Chrome (simply just move to the top of the screen. No need to aim.)

jamie said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

ohhh. silly me.. dint think to upgrade my video drivers to post on c9

 

I can't see that being the solution, although it would have produced a restart...

Ok... hold on, I'm posting this in IE9 right now...

stun said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

I love that the "New Tab" speed is fast <== something I have been complaining for the longest time.

 

However, Google Chrome's [Tab Bar] and [Address Bar] placement is still better in my opinion.

IE9's style makes the Address Bar shrink so much that you can't read the whole URL, which I hate.

 

Plus, it is easier to click on a tab in Google Chrome (simply just move to the top of the screen. No need to aim.)

too bad they didnt make every piece of ie9 customizable by the user - from toolbar widths - to placement - to top or bottom display - too WAY nicer non wing ding icons

Too many programmers - too many businesmen ... not enough usability / graphic designers.

re- above - im still in FF  - IE9 doesnt post on... C9

maybe it works on C10

Duncanma said:

jamie said:

*snip*

I can't see that being the solution, although it would have produced a restart...

 

Ok... hold on, I'm posting this in IE9 right now...

Hmm...  it really is working for me now. And I don't have a clue why.

Duncanma said:

Duncanma said:

*snip*

Hmm...  it really is working for me now. And I don't have a clue why.

still not here... closed re-opened

do i need to reboot?

jamie said:

Duncanma said:

*snip*

still not here... closed re-opened

 

 

do i need to reboot?

I did reboot... but I'm not saying that you need to or that it will help. But if you do reboot and it does fix it, then let me know ... I'll be very confused.

jamie said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

ohhh. silly me.. dint think to upgrade my video drivers to post on c9

 

This makes me curious. How well will IE9 and all of its newfangled acceleration play with 3D Games (ie: alt tabbing in and out of them to look stuff up)?

No need to reinvent the less functional wheel while there already is a better solution.

Look how horrible the current IE9's design is (screenshot #3).

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/09/inside-internet-explorer-9-redmond-gets-back-in-the-game.ars/2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...display_identification_data

I know ATI has it as an option. Directwrite seems to be quite sensitive to that.

intelman said:

For people with font blurryness issues, if your video card supports it, get the EDID information from the monitor itself and use those color settings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...display_identification_data

I know ATI has it as an option. Directwrite seems to be quite sensitive to that.

 

 

**bulletin ***   the back button is clip art from 1992 and is cut off ****

gzzzt

DCMonkey said:

jamie said:

*snip*

This makes me curious. How well will IE9 and all of its newfangled acceleration play with 3D Games (ie: alt tabbing in and out of them to look stuff up)?

If you alt tab out of a game, it's supposed to pause and not render, and as a result not use the GPU. I'd imagine the same applies to IE. So that shouldn't be a problem unless you're gaming on one monitor and are looking at an extremely fancy web page on the other.

Bas said:

DCMonkey said:

*snip*

If you alt tab out of a game, it's supposed to pause and not render, and as a result not use the GPU. I'd imagine the same applies to IE. So that shouldn't be a problem unless you're gaming on one monitor and are looking at an extremely fancy web page on the other.

sigh.. no one reads bulletins...

edit: there is tons of room above it too.... (menu bar you say? would that stop jobs from floating it over the menu bar - so it isnt cut off?

i bet he had a good laugh today...  "did you see the back button?" lol!! cough cough"  (easy steve)

jus' FIX IT!  <you know the pic>

jamie said:

Bas said:

*snip*

sigh.. no one reads bulletins...

 

edit: there is tons of room above it too.... (menu bar you say? would that stop jobs from floating it over the menu bar - so it isnt cut off?

 

i bet he had a good laugh today...  "did you see the back button?" lol!! cough cough"  (easy steve)

 

jus' FIX IT!  <you know the pic>

I think it's supposed to make the page "pop out" by giving the illusion that the page is in front of the browser chrome. I suppose they could have made the back button bigger and overlapped more of it to emphasize that, but that would have made it ridiculously large compared to the forward button (assuming they would be kept aligned horizontally).

The title bar "fivehead" OTOH I'm not all that thrilled with either. But the enlarged back button does make it less of a eyesore than the Windows 7/Vista Explorer title bar.

jamie said:

intelman said:

*snip*

**bulletin ***   the back button is clip art from 1992 and is cut off ****

 

 

gzzzt

I actually kinda like the back button appearance...  it's unique.

My thoughts:

Likes:

* I love IE's approach to site-specific browsers (pinning to start menu or creating desktop shortcuts).  Recoloring the navigation buttons is a nice visual cue to tell which window belongs to which site (and it's very Win7-ish).  C9 needs a large pixel icon for the taskbar

* Performance and seems very good, from the little bit that I've used it.  Seems that IE has managed to get out of the performance rut they were in.  Big + for IE9:  No more "loading" when I create a new (blank) tab.

* On the performance note, I love how IE detects which add-ins are causing IE to be slow to start up; slow startup is one of the big reasons I've avoided IE in the past.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, most of the slow add-ons I disabled were Microsoft add-ons.  Get your act together, people!

* I like the minimal UI--  Pretty much everything I'll ever need is available under the one Tools menu.  This is very Chrome-ish.

Dislikes:

* Font rendering is really crappy (worse than WPF for some cases).  Most fonts look okay (Segoe UI looks perfectly normal), but some fonts look atrocious.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, common Arial 12pt (probably the most common font combo on the web) looks horrible.

* Single row address bar and tabs.  To give enough room for a usable number of tabs, I have to shrink the address bar so much that there's not much readable content in the address.  Plus, there's a potential security issue here:  since, on every website I've visited so far, the end of the domain name is not visible, there's no way (except to click the field, and arrow through or drag to scroll) to tell the difference between, say, http://arstechnica.com/ and http://arstechnica.imgonnastealurpersonalinfo.com/ .  All I see is "http://arstechnic..." in the address field (this is at slightly wider than the default width).

* Combined search and address bar.  Why do privacy and search suggestions have to be mutually exclusive?  This is stupid.

* Compatibility.  I'll give them a pass on this for now (it's the first day, and lots of sites detect browsers improperly).  But when the browser doesn't work in Microsoft's own developer forums (i.e. here), it doesn't bode well.  It especially doesn't bode well that it fails inconsistently.

(Posted from Chrome)

CannotResolveSymbol said:

jamie said:

*snip*

I actually kinda like the back button appearance...  it's unique.

 

My thoughts:

 

Likes:

* I love IE's approach to site-specific browsers (pinning to start menu or creating desktop shortcuts).  Recoloring the navigation buttons is a nice visual cue to tell which window belongs to which site (and it's very Win7-ish).  C9 needs a large pixel icon for the taskbar

* Performance and seems very good, from the little bit that I've used it.  Seems that IE has managed to get out of the performance rut they were in.  Big + for IE9:  No more "loading" when I create a new (blank) tab.

* On the performance note, I love how IE detects which add-ins are causing IE to be slow to start up; slow startup is one of the big reasons I've avoided IE in the past.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, most of the slow add-ons I disabled were Microsoft add-ons.  Get your act together, people!

* I like the minimal UI--  Pretty much everything I'll ever need is available under the one Tools menu.  This is very Chrome-ish.

 

Dislikes:

 

* Font rendering is really crappy (worse than WPF for some cases).  Most fonts look okay (Segoe UI looks perfectly normal), but some fonts look atrocious.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, common Arial 12pt (probably the most common font combo on the web) looks horrible.

* Single row address bar and tabs.  To give enough room for a usable number of tabs, I have to shrink the address bar so much that there's not much readable content in the address.  Plus, there's a potential security issue here:  since, on every website I've visited so far, the end of the domain name is not visible, there's no way (except to click the field, and arrow through or drag to scroll) to tell the difference between, say, http://arstechnica.com/ and http://arstechnica.imgonnastealurpersonalinfo.com/ .  All I see is "http://arstechnic..." in the address field (this is at slightly wider than the default width).

* Combined search and address bar.  Why do privacy and search suggestions have to be mutually exclusive?  This is stupid.

* Compatibility.  I'll give them a pass on this for now (it's the first day, and lots of sites detect browsers improperly).  But when the browser doesn't work in Microsoft's own developer forums (i.e. here), it doesn't bode well.  It especially doesn't bode well that it fails inconsistently.

 

(Posted from Chrome)

to both:

sorry ...but it looks like it didnt fit - and they concocted a scheme

i hate it

ps - maybe they could do that with the menu bar too ... have it come over and block half the text!  that would be so 3d! 

jamie said:

CannotResolveSymbol said:

*snip*

to both:

 

sorry ...but it looks like it didnt fit - and they concocted a scheme

 

i hate it

 

ps - maybe they could do that with the menu bar too ... have it come over and block half the text!  that would be so 3d! 

Force IE 8 mode. This was broken in all of the preview builds as well (in IE9 mode), It has to do with the code used by this edit control. Apparently, they didn't write an IE9 version Our dev team will take care of this, of course. In some sense, it's unfortunate I didn't test this with all the IE9 previews (forcing IE9 document mode). Sorry.

C

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

When will silverlight follow?

Also, is there an RSS icon anywhere?

BitFlipper said:

Really they should make IE7/8/9 instalable side-by-side. Then you can set one as your "default", which the OS will then use to render all out-of-browser HTML, etc. We know they can do it since they did it with the IE9 previews. There is no reason why IE9 can't function as a stand-alone app.

You can effectively do this in IE9 by setting the compatibility mode per site or domain (Tools -> View Compatibility ->Etc...). Then, you have 3 browsers in one! Joy!!!

C

Charles said:

BitFlipper said:

*snip*

You can effectively do this in IE9 by setting the compatibility mode per site or domain (Tools -> View Compatibility ->Etc...). Then, you have 3 browsers in one! Joy!!!

C

Ah, good, I can post now (according to the dev tools, you're forcing IE7 compatibility mode).  So much for "IE runs the same markup as the others," though.

RSS has been demoted to the command bar...  there's no way to move it to someplace useful, and there's no way to just toggle the command bar temporarily like you can the menu bar (you have to turn it on, then turn it back off afterwards).  Pretty inconvenient if you use IE's RSS features a lot.

jamie said:

androidi said:

*snip*

c9team...can you post in ie9?

 

signed - firefox

You should be asking IE8 because I can barely sign on recently as well.

vesuvius said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot, but you can pin a tab to the taskbar, just by dragging it.

 

I also think that it would be nice to have the tabs on a second row, but to save viewing space (which tey seem to be going for), I would swap the tabs and the searchbox position because it feels more natural to have your tabs on the left. I think it the single most important change they need to make.

 

I also think the buttons are pixelated when they turn yellow and nowhere near as clear when green

 

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot...

I don’t understand why they would want to annoy people by not allowing them to configure the UI to their own preference.

elmer said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot...

 

I don’t understand why they would want to annoy people by not allowing them to configure the UI to their own preference.

Here's one reason:

Bas said:

elmer said:

*snip*

Here's one reason:

 

Yes but it doesn't mean we should not have some control over the basics. I imagine most people won't like the way the tabs work in IE9. I already have so many tabs open at once that I have to scroll them, and this is with IE8. Now with IE9 I'll have even less space for tabs.

BitFlipper said:

Bas said:

*snip*

Yes but it doesn't mean we should not have some control over the basics. I imagine most people won't like the way the tabs work in IE9. I already have so many tabs open at once that I have to scroll them, and this is with IE8. Now with IE9 I'll have even less space for tabs.

If the default mechanism is good enough, customization should not be necessary. Unfortunately, in IE9 the default mechanism is far from good.

Bas said:

elmer said:

*snip*

Here's one reason:

 

You have too much, typically people will remove the first 2 bars or put them in weird places. And then scream, "It breaks, no more save button."

BitFlipper said:

Bas said:

*snip*

Yes but it doesn't mean we should not have some control over the basics. I imagine most people won't like the way the tabs work in IE9. I already have so many tabs open at once that I have to scroll them, and this is with IE8. Now with IE9 I'll have even less space for tabs.

I do hope they expend to second row automatically if too many tabs. Then, instead of scroll to left and right, it should have a scroll bar up and down.

magicalclick said:

Bas said:

*snip*

You have too much, typically people will remove the first 2 bars or put them in weird places. And then scream, "It breaks, no more save button."

You have too much

You think ??

elmer said:

magicalclick said:

*snip*

You have too much

 

You think ??

Yeah, standard bar should be removed.

It's cool that the back and forward buttons respond to right click, click and hold, and a downward swipe.

intelman said:

For people with font blurryness issues, if your video card supports it, get the EDID information from the monitor itself and use those color settings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...display_identification_data

I know ATI has it as an option. Directwrite seems to be quite sensitive to that.

 

 

ive only found the rss stuff on the tools menu that you get when pressing alt, there you have the "Feed discovery" options

however that is not available for the gear in the upper right corner :/

my impressions so far is that its blazing fast however i wish they add/change the following things:

*move back/forward buttons up so they are closer to the top of the window, similar to the office button in 2007,

*move the adressbar to the top of the window, essentially making it an editable title bar

*have the suggestions/search result popup cover the entire width of the window, mitigating the issue with cut off adresses

*have tabs overflow to a second row when some number of tabs are opened,

*add ability to tear a tab group

*add ability to select multiple tabs and make a new group out of them

elmer said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot...

 

I don’t understand why they would want to annoy people by not allowing them to configure the UI to their own preference.

Same reason as they removed the ability to configure the toolbars in Windows Explorer from Vista onwards: the new Microsoft design philosophy is based on treating users like idiots.

NitzWalsh said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

Ugh - hate the address bar on the left.  Two issues with it:

 

1) Reduces tab space.  This will really suck on netbooks.

2) I frequently re-use open tabs by selecting the tab, then quickly mousing down and clicking to highlight the address bar, then using autocomplete in chrome to resolve the link.  With IE9, now I'm moving the mouse all the way back to the left address bar, there's a lot of wasted movement.

 

Speaking of wasted, all that vertical space.  Really, what is being saved here in terms of real estate with this decision?  It didn't make any sense in the leaked screenshot, and it makes less sense in actual use.  The advantage of Chrome when maximized is even more pronounced, there's no possibly to overshoot your tab vertically, as they're all on the top.  Getting used to that then going back to other browsers is a little obnoxious.

 

Another potential drawback - DirectWrite rendering.  Geez, with certain fonts on some sites it just looks...odd - like it's trying to be more typographically "correct" like MacOSX but just looks like a grayer version of Cleartype with its sometimes more defined, but more "computerized" look of fonts.  It can look better in spots (particularly for medium-sized fonts where Cleartype would not seem to anti-alias them at all), but it's really hit or miss.   Here are some comparisons (embedded images don't work here like 99% of other web forums):

 

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3623/safarimediumtextrenderi.png

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2774/ie9defaultrendering.png

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6/safarilighttextrenderin.png

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6325/chromerendering.png

 

 

On the plus size, very, very speedy.  Opening tabs now has no hesitation, sites pop up, scrolling is extremely smooth (Chrome really needs to get with the program here).  Really can't seem to bog it down.  Download manager -yes, yes, yes.

 

Very preliminary results so far obviously, but I can't say I'll navigate away from Chrome at this point.  Chrome still has the superior interface IMO, and while I really like the smooth scrolling, by the time Chrome7 hits they may just have that as well.

 

 

2) I frequently re-use open tabs by selecting the tab, then quickly mousing down and clicking to highlight the address bar, then using autocomplete in chrome to resolve the link.  With IE9, now I'm moving the mouse all the way back to the left address bar, there's a lot of wasted movement.

CTRL+L Sets focus to the address bar. That should save you some movement.

andokai said:

NitzWalsh said:

*snip*

2) I frequently re-use open tabs by selecting the tab, then quickly mousing down and clicking to highlight the address bar, then using autocomplete in chrome to resolve the link.  With IE9, now I'm moving the mouse all the way back to the left address bar, there's a lot of wasted movement.

 

CTRL+L Sets focus to the address bar. That should save you some movement.

F4 does it too.

spivonious said:

andokai said:

*snip*

F4 does it too.

As do Ctrl+E and Alt+D.

Bas said:

elmer said:

*snip*

Here's one reason:

 

just need a few more tool bars .... LOL.....

WOnder if a larger monitor would help, get an Apple Cinima 30" and then i bet you got lots of room!!

Bas said:

spivonious said:

*snip*

As do Ctrl+E and Alt+D.

I've installed it and my first impression is: not as terrible as I expected.

The favorites button is on the wrong side of the screen. The inline tabs seems to work now but I'll haveat  to wait how it stands up to heavy usage when I have a lot of tabs open. It might work, but I think it would be a lot better if they at least give you the option to just move it to two rows. What's with the aversion to putting anything in the title bar MS seems to be having? It's called a title bar for a reason: it should have the title in it. The lack of a status bar is weird; not necessarily bad, just weird. Especially lack of easy access to the zoom setting might be an issue here.

I do like the notification window thingy. I like the download manager (that downloads to the selected location, rather than TIF, finally!). I like the speed and I already know from the preview that I like the new standards support. I also like being able to tear off tabs. I have no trouble with font rendering so far, but this is a pretty high-DPI screen. We'll see how it goes when I get back from Singapore next week and use my plain vanilla 96DPI desktop monitors.

Oh, and it breaks some of my desktop gadgets, but that appears to happen every time there's a new version of IE.

Like many others I can't post on C9 with it (using Firefox for this).

Sven Groot said:

Bas said:

*snip*

I've installed it and my first impression is: not as terrible as I expected.

 

The favorites button is on the wrong side of the screen. The inline tabs seems to work now but I'll haveat  to wait how it stands up to heavy usage when I have a lot of tabs open. It might work, but I think it would be a lot better if they at least give you the option to just move it to two rows. What's with the aversion to putting anything in the title bar MS seems to be having? It's called a title bar for a reason: it should have the title in it. The lack of a status bar is weird; not necessarily bad, just weird. Especially lack of easy access to the zoom setting might be an issue here.

 

I do like the notification window thingy. I like the download manager (that downloads to the selected location, rather than TIF, finally!). I like the speed and I already know from the preview that I like the new standards support. I also like being able to tear off tabs. I have no trouble with font rendering so far, but this is a pretty high-DPI screen. We'll see how it goes when I get back from Singapore next week and use my plain vanilla 96DPI desktop monitors.

 

Oh, and it breaks some of my desktop gadgets, but that appears to happen every time there's a new version of IE.

 

Like many others I can't post on C9 with it (using Firefox for this).

You can use IE9 until we fix the issue by adding msdn to the compatibility view list (Tools -> Compatibility View settings).

Posted from IE9,

C

Charles said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

You can use IE9 until we fix the issue by adding msdn to the compatibility view list (Tools -> Compatibility View settings).

 

Posted from IE9,

C

oh look, it works

Charles said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

You can use IE9 until we fix the issue by adding msdn to the compatibility view list (Tools -> Compatibility View settings).

 

Posted from IE9,

C

That seems to work.

Another issue: this laptop has a hybrid graphics solution, which means it has two video cards, an Intel for improved battery time, and an nVidia for performance. It has a switch to choose between the two (labelled as "stamina" and "speed" respectively).

Certain application, such as the Messenger 2010 beta, which use 3D, cause a message saying that they have to be closed to make the switch, and if you don't and force the switch, they crash.

But with IE9, there's no such message. Instead, if I try to switch between stamina and speed while IE9 is running, the system just BSODs. Great.

Sven Groot said:

Charles said:

*snip*

That seems to work.

 

Another issue: this laptop has a hybrid graphics solution, which means it has two video cards, an Intel for improved battery time, and an nVidia for performance. It has a switch to choose between the two (labelled as "stamina" and "speed" respectively).

 

Certain application, such as the Messenger 2010 beta, which use 3D, cause a message saying that they have to be closed to make the switch, and if you don't and force the switch, they crash.

 

But with IE9, there's no such message. Instead, if I try to switch between stamina and speed while IE9 is running, the system just BSODs. Great.

Don't switch while IE9 is running

Microsoft already said Intell is working on it, also to make better decisions when to ativate the GPU and when not to activate it.

CKurt said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

Don't switch while IE9 is running

 

Microsoft already said Intell is working on it, also to make better decisions when to ativate the GPU and when not to activate it.

I've been an MS beta tester for over a decade, so I consider it my job to do things that I expect to break the system, such as switching video cards while IE is running.

Actually, I was just curious whether IE would cause the "close this app" message since it uses the GPU. The BSOD was not the result I was expecting.

spivonious said:

Anyone else having trouble sending feedback? It seems that the version of Live ID Assistant installed with the Live Essentials beta is incompatible.

I installed it, and you have to not already registered, you have to register for the specific feadback program as well. IMO, most people will just screw it at point of login. And later steps are even harder and confusing. But, yeah, I finally did it.

The first time I download a program from download.com, it is not using notification bar. It is still a popup, but, the pop up has three options, Open, Save, Save As.

Then, when I download it from other sites, the save notification bar comes out.

And for right click -> save target as. It is the IE8- style.

In total, I experienced 3 different ways and different UI for downloading a content. I brain is starting to overheat.

Sven Groot said:

CKurt said:

*snip*

I've been an MS beta tester for over a decade, so I consider it my job to do things that I expect to break the system, such as switching video cards while IE is running.

 

Actually, I was just curious whether IE would cause the "close this app" message since it uses the GPU. The BSOD was not the result I was expecting.

I spent a little more money on a better more stable PC after a few nightmares in the XP->Vista timeframe, and had hoped that GPU issues had been resolved, as there is nothing quite as unacceptable as a BSOD. If you have paid over £1.500 for a machine, and the response is "it is with intel", I cannot see how one can exercise patience, it is a tough ask.

I am encountering strange behavior if I try to copy and paste text from a search box, it [browser] just jumps back to the default search engine which is irritating. I have also gotten used to the way it is laid out, and think I could get used to it, but some visual customisation would be welcome.

If I choose my default search providor to (shock...horror) Google, then IE9 is failing to retain this choice across browers sessions, I am bung back into Bing.

Sven Groot said:

Charles said:

*snip*

That seems to work.

 

Another issue: this laptop has a hybrid graphics solution, which means it has two video cards, an Intel for improved battery time, and an nVidia for performance. It has a switch to choose between the two (labelled as "stamina" and "speed" respectively).

 

Certain application, such as the Messenger 2010 beta, which use 3D, cause a message saying that they have to be closed to make the switch, and if you don't and force the switch, they crash.

 

But with IE9, there's no such message. Instead, if I try to switch between stamina and speed while IE9 is running, the system just BSODs. Great.

That's a driver bug. Please report this, with exact information, on the IE Connect site. I'll send a mail to the IE team as a head's up. There have been some reports of various bad behavior due to driver code. This is not surprising given that IE9 runs closer to the hardware than any previous version....

Please report this bug.

C

Charles said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

You can use IE9 until we fix the issue by adding msdn to the compatibility view list (Tools -> Compatibility View settings).

 

Posted from IE9,

C

Seems channel9 must now be in the 'Include Updated Websites List form Microsoft' option, as disabling that option stops me posting.

PerfectPhase said:

Charles said:

*snip*

Seems channel9 must now be in the 'Include Updated Websites List form Microsoft' option, as disabling that option stops me posting.

I'm not experiencing this behavior. I removed the check from that checkbox item and I am now posting this. What exactly did you do to re-break posting?
C

Charles said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

I'm not experiencing this behavior. I removed the check from that checkbox item and I am now posting this. What exactly did you do to re-break posting?
C

Video

PerfectPhase said:

Charles said:

*snip*

Video

Thanks for the video. I don't have time to make one to explain what I was doing, but I actually added msdn to the compat list (which did not). So, my unchecking the box had no effect. Interesting issue.

C

Charles said:

PerfectPhase said:

*snip*

Thanks for the video. I don't have time to make one to explain what I was doing, but I actually added msdn to the compat list (which did not). So, my unchecking the box had no effect. Interesting issue.

C

ALL: Please test out commenting on Rev9. The dev team made some changes and this issue (IE9 running in IE9 mode) should be resolved. We appreciate the testing help!!

So, head to Rev9 (http://preview.channel9.msdn.com), remove msdn from the compat list, make threads and post comments in IE9 mode.

Thank you!
C

vesuvius said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot, but you can pin a tab to the taskbar, just by dragging it.

 

I also think that it would be nice to have the tabs on a second row, but to save viewing space (which tey seem to be going for), I would swap the tabs and the searchbox position because it feels more natural to have your tabs on the left. I think it the single most important change they need to make.

 

I also think the buttons are pixelated when they turn yellow and nowhere near as clear when green

 

Is the navigation buttons colour change a 7 only feature? Because I'm not seeing it on Vista (nor the favicon to the left of the buttons, for that matter):

EDIT: Ahhh... figured it out - it only appears like that if you drag it to the quick launch area and load it from there.

GoddersUK said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

Is the navigation buttons colour change a 7 only feature? Because I'm not seeing it on Vista (nor the favicon to the left of the buttons, for that matter):

 

 

EDIT: Ahhh... figured it out - it only appears like that if you drag it to the quick launch area and load it from there.

The buttons are normally the blue you have in the image above, I have dragged the channel 9.msdn/forums page to the Win 7 taskbar as a shortcut. Upon launching this, the buttons are yellow. I also know that they are green also at times, but I am yet to determine the conditions that trigger a, b or c or is that b, g or y (blue, green or yellow gold)

The tabs themselves also change colour pretty dramatically sometimes, and again, i'm not sure why?

vesuvius said:

GoddersUK said:

*snip*

The buttons are normally the blue you have in the image above, I have dragged the channel 9.msdn/forums page to the Win 7 taskbar as a shortcut. Upon launching this, the buttons are yellow. I also know that they are green also at times, but I am yet to determine the conditions that trigger a, b or c or is that b, g or y (blue, green or yellow gold)

 

The tabs themselves also change colour pretty dramatically sometimes, and again, i'm not sure why?

The colour comes from the favicon, in a similar way to the background colouring of win 7 taskbar icons, I believe.

The tab colouring will be a result of tab grouping - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2008/09/30/ie8-tab-grouping.aspx

GoddersUK said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

The colour comes from the favicon, in a similar way to the background colouring of win 7 taskbar icons, I believe.

 

The tab colouring will be a result of tab grouping - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2008/09/30/ie8-tab-grouping.aspx

You can also set the color via meta data taggs. But the color is only shown when the site has been pinned indeed.

vesuvius said:

GoddersUK said:

*snip*

The buttons are normally the blue you have in the image above, I have dragged the channel 9.msdn/forums page to the Win 7 taskbar as a shortcut. Upon launching this, the buttons are yellow. I also know that they are green also at times, but I am yet to determine the conditions that trigger a, b or c or is that b, g or y (blue, green or yellow gold)

 

The tabs themselves also change colour pretty dramatically sometimes, and again, i'm not sure why?

Button color, for an instance launched from a pinned site or desktop shortcut, takes the predominant color from the site's icon (so, if you pin C9 to the taskbar, you get yellow buttons).  It uses an algorithm similar to the one that decides the color of the taskbar button highlight.

Tab color is arbitrary; all tabs in the same group will be the same color.  This behavior's inherited from IE8.

vesuvius said:

GoddersUK said:

*snip*

The buttons are normally the blue you have in the image above, I have dragged the channel 9.msdn/forums page to the Win 7 taskbar as a shortcut. Upon launching this, the buttons are yellow. I also know that they are green also at times, but I am yet to determine the conditions that trigger a, b or c or is that b, g or y (blue, green or yellow gold)

 

The tabs themselves also change colour pretty dramatically sometimes, and again, i'm not sure why?

The buttons changing color is supposed to be based on a meta tag in the website itself. The tabs should only be changing color when a group is created, but that's been around since IE8.

EEDIT: Errr... Yeah, what they said. Look! A bunny! *ninja vanish*

CannotResolveSymbol said:

vesuvius said:

*snip*

Button color, for an instance launched from a pinned site or desktop shortcut, takes the predominant color from the site's icon (so, if you pin C9 to the taskbar, you get yellow buttons).  It uses an algorithm similar to the one that decides the color of the taskbar button highlight.

 

Tab color is arbitrary; all tabs in the same group will be the same color.  This behavior's inherited from IE8.

Exactly.

C

Charles said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

That's a driver bug. Please report this, with exact information, on the IE Connect site. I'll send a mail to the IE team as a head's up. There have been some reports of various bad behavior due to driver code. This is not surprising given that IE9 runs closer to the hardware than any previous version....

 

Please report this bug.

C

This is really really concerning. Driver causing IE9 to become bad? Hardware acceleration is cool, but, if IE9 is unreliable due to miss-match of hardware/driver, I fear IE is going to end badly.

magicalclick said:

Charles said:

*snip*

This is really really concerning. Driver causing IE9 to become bad? Hardware acceleration is cool, but, if IE9 is unreliable due to miss-match of hardware/driver, I fear IE is going to end badly.

Nah. This is a beta... The purpose it to find these types of bugs in the wild and then fix them (or send info to the 3rd party code owners to fix them). This happens all the time with new software. Nothing to really, really worry about....

C

I would have thought it pretty simple to make each control group a dockable element, and allow the user to drag & dock these however they prefer.

I see this as MS giving people yet another reason to reject IE... and personally, I'll go F/Fox if the RTM is the same.

http://www.dailytech.com/UPDATED+Browser+War+2+IE+9+Beta+1+versus+Firefox+4+Beta+6/article19639.htm

As noted at the end: All testing was done on a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional Edition.  The hardware used was a MacBook Pro with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9600, a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT GPU, and 4 GB of DDR RAM.

 1. Change the grouped tab appearance to have a style that's similar to the look used on the New Tab page. The color is taken from the favicon of the first tab, and enough space is left between the color bar and the edge of the tab, just to separate two tab groups visually in case they have the same color. (I know the way I have it designed in the screenshot would make it impossible to tell which tab out of the group is selected, but I'm just throwing this out as an idea to start with because I think something along these lines would help it look better)

2. Soften the bluish colors that were left unchanged, make them a light gray instead. The softer look will allow something like the Favorites Bar to fit in much better with the new UI.

Look at the focus rectangle, it extends into the scroll bar area.

Second impression: 36 MB web browser?

Third impression: tba

Bass said:

First impression: It's very nice that Microsoft seems to be taking modern web technology seriously with IE9.

 

Second impression: 36 MB web browser?

 

Third impression: tba

Whats your third impression

brian.shapiro said:

Bass said:

*snip*

Whats your third impression

Still waiting for the download/install

vesuvius said:

Dr Herbie said:

*snip*

I have tried to move the tabs onto the second row, and cannot, but you can pin a tab to the taskbar, just by dragging it.

 

I also think that it would be nice to have the tabs on a second row, but to save viewing space (which tey seem to be going for), I would swap the tabs and the searchbox position because it feels more natural to have your tabs on the left. I think it the single most important change they need to make.

 

I also think the buttons are pixelated when they turn yellow and nowhere near as clear when green

 

The buttons don't look that great on either site. The icon on the new 9 site does look great in the taskbar though. I love this new pin-to-taskbar feature. May have to have two rows of taskbar space now. Some popular MS sites don't have all that great icons: Bing and Hotmail to name two.

The Aero-Snap feature is great but would be even greater if you could auto-snap two tabs by dragging and dropping one tab over another for a split-view.

Bookmarking is too tedious because you have to click 3 times (as far as I can see) to bookmark anything using the GUI. This is in contrast to Chrome where it is a 1-click operation. There's probably a shortcut for it but the GUI steps are needlessly tedious.

Chrome's tab arrangement makes perfect sense.  When you don't have the window maximized, you've got space enough to grab the titlebar.  When the window is mazimized, what do you need the titlebar there for if there's no title?  So use it all for tabs.  More space, easier to hit.

With IE9, when maximized th titlebar is actualyl larger, you've got more wasted space exactly when you don't need it.  There's nothing there.  It's operating exactly the opposite of how it should.

The large back button that's sligtly cut off?  Meh, could take it or leave it, don't really find it offensive nor pleasing.  I'm not a huge fan of the white mostly-obscured menu bar though. This is a Vista, but most Win7 (and some Metro) inspired design.  Just kill the damn menu bar already, if you're not going to kill it truly allow us to completely hide it.

I keep going back and forth between chrome and IE9 though, in some ways IE is noticeably snappier, some times Chrome is (I truly love how IE9, given a few seconds of pre-casching after a could boot, basically opens like you're just opening an explorer window - BAM, it truly feels like a part of the OS).

Oh, one more minotr performance grip - resizing.  With Chrome the page can resize/shrink almost as fast as I can scroll the mouse wheel, with IE9 there's a several-second delay.  It's actually one of the slowest resizers amongst web browser I've seen, hopefully that can be rectified.

Complaints and all though, so nice for those times when you need NTLM authentication and IE compatibility and you don't have to sacrifice the performance and (mostly) the interface you want anymore. 

NitzWalsh said:

I really hope MS doesn't have the tab design now just to not appear to copy Chome, almost like the largely useless Flip3D was designed just not to copy Excpose.

 

Chrome's tab arrangement makes perfect sense.  When you don't have the window maximized, you've got space enough to grab the titlebar.  When the window is mazimized, what do you need the titlebar there for if there's no title?  So use it all for tabs.  More space, easier to hit.

 

With IE9, when maximized th titlebar is actualyl larger, you've got more wasted space exactly when you don't need it.  There's nothing there.  It's operating exactly the opposite of how it should.

 

The large back button that's sligtly cut off?  Meh, could take it or leave it, don't really find it offensive nor pleasing.  I'm not a huge fan of the white mostly-obscured menu bar though. This is a Vista, but most Win7 (and some Metro) inspired design.  Just kill the damn menu bar already, if you're not going to kill it truly allow us to completely hide it.

 

I keep going back and forth between chrome and IE9 though, in some ways IE is noticeably snappier, some times Chrome is (I truly love how IE9, given a few seconds of pre-casching after a could boot, basically opens like you're just opening an explorer window - BAM, it truly feels like a part of the OS).

 

Oh, one more minotr performance grip - resizing.  With Chrome the page can resize/shrink almost as fast as I can scroll the mouse wheel, with IE9 there's a several-second delay.  It's actually one of the slowest resizers amongst web browser I've seen, hopefully that can be rectified.

 

Complaints and all though, so nice for those times when you need NTLM authentication and IE compatibility and you don't have to sacrifice the performance and (mostly) the interface you want anymore. 

 

 

The maximized titlebar isn't larger, it just appears larger because the white highlight is missing

NitzWalsh said:

I really hope MS doesn't have the tab design now just to not appear to copy Chome, almost like the largely useless Flip3D was designed just not to copy Excpose.

 

Chrome's tab arrangement makes perfect sense.  When you don't have the window maximized, you've got space enough to grab the titlebar.  When the window is mazimized, what do you need the titlebar there for if there's no title?  So use it all for tabs.  More space, easier to hit.

 

With IE9, when maximized th titlebar is actualyl larger, you've got more wasted space exactly when you don't need it.  There's nothing there.  It's operating exactly the opposite of how it should.

 

The large back button that's sligtly cut off?  Meh, could take it or leave it, don't really find it offensive nor pleasing.  I'm not a huge fan of the white mostly-obscured menu bar though. This is a Vista, but most Win7 (and some Metro) inspired design.  Just kill the damn menu bar already, if you're not going to kill it truly allow us to completely hide it.

 

I keep going back and forth between chrome and IE9 though, in some ways IE is noticeably snappier, some times Chrome is (I truly love how IE9, given a few seconds of pre-casching after a could boot, basically opens like you're just opening an explorer window - BAM, it truly feels like a part of the OS).

 

Oh, one more minotr performance grip - resizing.  With Chrome the page can resize/shrink almost as fast as I can scroll the mouse wheel, with IE9 there's a several-second delay.  It's actually one of the slowest resizers amongst web browser I've seen, hopefully that can be rectified.

 

Complaints and all though, so nice for those times when you need NTLM authentication and IE compatibility and you don't have to sacrifice the performance and (mostly) the interface you want anymore. 

 

 

Resizing in IE9 is very snappy here, horizontal and vertical.

CreamFilling512 said:

NitzWalsh said:

*snip*

Resizing in IE9 is very snappy here, horizontal and vertical.

It is not, sometimes my pages is not getting rendered and I get a white page. But the title does display in the tab.

magicalclick said:

BTW, anyone know where I can see those status messages? like waiting for server respons, there is an error, done, etc.

You mean this?:

GoddersUK said:

magicalclick said:

*snip*

You mean this?:

 

Yeha, I should try it out. I haven't right clicked it yet. Thanks for the tip

1 hour ago, PerfectPhase wrote

My biggest dislike so far with IE9 is the lack of feedback sometimes when you click on a link or something, Quite often I find my self staring a blank screen, no spinner in the tab thinking what the hell?  Then 10 seconds later the page snaps into view.

1 day ago, magicalclick wrote

This is really really concerning. Driver causing IE9 to become bad? Hardware acceleration is cool, but, if IE9 is unreliable due to miss-match of hardware/driver, I fear IE is going to end badly.

thats a tad dramatic i think, windows7 is hardware accelerated and depends on gpu driver stability, and its doing fine

And I discovered I can't send feedback on IE9. It complains that the WL signin assistant isn't installed, and then if I download the installer from the link it provides, that says a newer version is already installed. I guess that means that the IE9 feedback tool is not compatible with the WL signin assistant included with the wave 4 beta.

I know, I know, that's what I get for running more than one beta product on the same machine, but it's still annoying that I can't send feedback. I can still send feedback through Connect, but I'm sure the internal tool would collect more data.

1) The option window is still old and confusing.

2) The page loading is slower and IE8.

3) The hidding for status bar and merge of address bar and tabs doesn't really save much space.

4) the download popup is spilt in 3 experiences, new bar, new popup, old save target as pop up.

5) Annoying Favorite Icon location.

6) While the notification of performance plug-ins is good start, but, I believe it is still lacking. It is still too geeky.

5 hours ago, magicalclick wrote

Uninstalled it because Flash is not working for me. But, I find a lot of things are lacking.

1) The option window is still old and confusing.

2) The page loading is slower and IE8.

3) The hidding for status bar and merge of address bar and tabs doesn't really save much space.

4) the download popup is spilt in 3 experiences, new bar, new popup, old save target as pop up.

5) Annoying Favorite Icon location.

6) While the notification of performance plug-ins is good start, but, I believe it is still lacking. It is still too geeky.

Disagree with #2. IE9 loads pages noticeably faster than IE8 did on the same machine.

Herbie

1 hour ago, Cream​Filling512 wrote

@magicalclick: There is a beta version of flash that's optimized for the IE9 beta.

That didn't work for me. Or I should say, it renders, but, then it is completely disappeared. And when I move my mouse, occationally it will "flash" out for a millisecond. May be there is a problem with my hardware/driver/whatever, but, I am too lazy to figure it out.

The control UI is simply poorly thought out, and badly implemented.

A compact single control bar might be desirable for a device with limited display area, like a phone, but for a larger device (say a 22" monitor for example) it's inappropriate, as the need to reduce the scroll region by a cm or two is simply not there, and it is only making life more difficult for the user.

I still contend that the simple solution is to provide docking areas, and make each of the control elements a dockable UI element, that users can drag and position to suit their own needs and environment, in a similar way to how users can configure the Visual Studio environment.

For that matter, they could optionally be auto-hide regions (again, like Visual Studio's docking regions) to allow the space to be reclaimed if you don't need to see the controls all the time.

I'm using a ThinkPad T400 with ATI switchable graphics. For the curious, my setup is something like this:

• ThinkPad
• ThinkPad dock
• All peripherals connected to the dock except for the webcam, which is hooked up to the left external screen
• 2 Dell LCD screens (left one via DVI and right one via VGA)
• Disabled ThinkPad screen
• MS ergo keyboard
• MS mouse
• Macally webcam
• Iomega large USB drive

I've already posted the issue to Connect:

• https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/598363/green-artifacts-appear-in-video
• https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/598672/extremely-slow-tab-switching

Besides slow tab switching and green artifacts, I'm also getting:

-Constant tab hangs
-IE9 doesn't always catch crashed tabs (so I have to kill the process tree w/ Process Explorer)
-When I switch to another tab, the stuff in the previous tab continues to be displayed
-I have to force the window to be re-drawn when I go to a new website (generally by dragging IE9 off the edge of the screen and dragging it back)
-Textboxes (such as the C9 one) are extremely slow to respond to keystrokes so spelling mistakes become a frequent occurrence.
-Things that use the browser control (such as Semagic) are also a horror to use
-The vertical scrollbar does not accurately extend to the bottom of websites.
-Resizing the IE9 window occasionally causes the contents of the website to get stretched, which looks absolutely wretched with ClearType because all the subaliasing pixels get wildly contorted.

I looked for new video drivers and found this helpful little tidbit at Lenovo's site (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-72858.html):

Windows 7: 13 Oct 2009 (8.641.1.1-090824a-089811C)
Windows Vista: 28 Apr 2009 (8.563.2.1-090401a-079160C)
Windows XP: 10 Aug 2010 (8.752-100629a-102476C)

Your eyes aren't fooling you, by the way. Windows XP has newer video drivers than Windows 7.

I would be delighted if the IE9 team could get in touch with the person who has the power to poke Lenovo firmly in the side about the issue.

If anyone wants more details/experiments/etc, fire away. I'll be uninstalling IE9 in the morning (Pacific Time).

Incidentally, if you're wondering about the IE8 crashes, the condensed version is that resetting the browser & clearing the cache, et al does not fix the problem. I haven't tried reformatting the computer yet.

Edit: New C9 bug, ahoy. Whenever I edit a post, the carriage returns double. If the powers-that-be could shrink my post back down to size, that would be wonderful.