IE9 Won't Support Windows XP

The newest version of the Internet Explorer browser from Microsoft won't run on Windows XP, still the company's most widely-used operating system. 

Now that Microsoft has released the first public beta of Internet Explorer 9, the browser wars are heating up again. And, as in any war, there are going to be casualties. In this case, Windows XP is taking the hit.

As Datamation reports, Microsoft announced that, for a number of reasons, its latest browser won't run on Windows XP, but will run on the newer Vista and Windows 7. The article details Microsoft's decision and what alternative the software giant suggests for XP users. 

If Microsoft's new browser is as popular as the company hopes, it may reverse Internet Explorer's (IE) market share slide -- but it might also help to do something that the software giant has been trying unsuccessfully to accomplish for several years -- kill off Windows XP. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) released the first public beta test version of Internet Explorer 9 Wednesday at a launch event in San Francisco. 

The new browser promises to provide a much faster surfing experience by using hardware acceleration present in modern PCs. That will likely turn out to be great news for many users running Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

However, it's not good news for users running Windows XP, which doesn't support hardware acceleration. That means that IE9 cannot run on any version of XP, even though it's still the most popular version of Windows ever.

"There are a number of reasons that Internet Explorer 9 is not available in Windows XP that range from the need for Internet Explorer 9 to take advantage of modern hardware down to the specifics that Internet Explorer 9 Beta requires Direct2D support, a new technology introduced in Windows 7," a Microsoft spokesperson told InternetNews.com in an e-mail.

Direct2D is a technology incorporated into Windows 7 that aids hardware acceleration of graphics. The technology is also supported by a "platform update" that was added to Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and to Windows Server 2008.

Although it's been known since at least March that XP wouldn't support IE9, it may still come as a splash of cold water in the face for some users still running the nine-year-old operating system -- and there are a lot of them.

According to Web analytics tracking firm Net Applications, XP is still by far the most popular operating system in use with some 60.89 percent market share worldwide in August -- nearly four times Windows 7's market share, and twice the share of Windows 7 and Windows Vista combine