A new browser is coming in Windows 10 with a fresh engine

Feb 27, 2015 06:32 GMT  ·  By

In Windows 10, Microsoft will officially give up on Internet Explorer and offer users an alternative browser that could be called Spartan and would come with a completely new rendering engine capable of competing with modern browsers.

After so many years, Microsoft has finally decided to kill Internet Explorer once and for all, and while some believe that this is just a way to address the negative perception that's still affecting its browser's market share, the company says that it just couldn't go on like this forever and fix issues which could in the end hit millions of websites out there.

Instead, Redmond decided to embrace a completely new approach with a fresh engine, called Edge, with a new look and modern features that would better align with the other Windows 10 tools.

"Fixing long standing interoperability bugs with other modern browsers could actually break sites who have coded to the IE-specific behavior," Microsoft's Charles Morris posted this morning.

A break from the past

Morris himself admits that abandoning Internet Explorer was also imperative because the company “needed a break from the past,” adding that the new browser gives Microsoft the opportunity to build up “a new web rendering engine, free from the 20 years of Internet Explorer legacy.”

At the same time, with Spartan Microsoft tries to tackle multiple platforms at once, planning to make the new browser available on PCs, tablets, and smartphones and providing sync features that would in the end lead to uninterrupted productivity wherever you go.

Internet Explorer's engine will continue to be available at first because of the compatibility issues, as there are plenty of websites and company apps that are built around Microsoft's tech, but there will be a moment when Spartan will become the one and only browser option for all users.

"Our legacy engine can remain largely unchanged (outside of security and other high priority fixes) to help guarantee legacy compatibility for our enterprise customers," Morris noted.

Spartan, still in development, will make its official debut in the form of a preview at some point during the development process of Windows 10 and will be specifically addressed to insiders who can try out the app and send back feedback to Microsoft for bug fixing purposes.

No release dates are available right now, but Windows 10 is likely to see the light of day in the fall of 2015, so expect Spartan to show up anytime soon.

This is the new Spartan browser which will be offered in Windows 10
This is the new Spartan browser which will be offered in Windows 10

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Internet Explorer will finally go away in Windows 10
This is the new Spartan browser which will be offered in Windows 10
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