Internet Explorer 10 is an integral component of Windows 8. Not only does it enable touch browsing on tablets running the new OS, but actually powers some of its new-style Windows 8 apps. Until very recently, IE10 was only available for Windows 8, clearly the focus of development for Microsoft over the past year. But now the hundreds of millions of Windows 7 users can enjoy the new browser's superior speed and standards support. They also don't have to deal with one of the main problems with IE10 on Windows 8, the confusion between two flavors—the full-screen, touch-focused new-style incarnation and the familiar desktop version.

In Windows 8, it's still true that Internet Explorer 10, leads a double life. You can run it as a new-style full screen app or you can run it in the traditional Windows desktop view. Underneath, however, both of these as well as the Windows 7 edition use the same rendering engine. Currenty, the Windows 7 version is dubbed a "preview," and it's available for download from IETestdrive.com.

Internet Explorer 9 improved on version 8 considerably in both speed and support of HTML5 and CSS3 features, but it still was way behind the competition from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera in the standards support department. With IE10, Microsoft's browser not only gets right in the fray with HTML5 and CSS3 support, but even offers features not found in the others, like HTML5 touch input support.