Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was a major release in Microsoft's browser history, officially launched on March 14, 2011, during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival . It marked a significant shift toward modern web standards and high-performance browsing. Core Technical Profile (32-bit)
: The 32-bit version featured the new "Chakra" JavaScript engine. It utilized a background thread for Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation , allowing users to interact with pages while the browser generated faster code in the background. Internet Explorer 9 (32 bits)
: It was the first browser to utilize full hardware acceleration via Direct2D and DirectWrite, offloading graphics and text rendering to the GPU for smoother performance. Key Features and Improvements Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was a major release
: The last regular security update was released on January 14, 2020 , though some versions on Windows Server 2008 remained eligible for Extended Security Updates (ESU) until early 2023. It utilized a background thread for Just-In-Time (JIT)
: Interestingly, the 64-bit version of IE9 lacked this JIT compiler, making it up to four times slower than its 32-bit counterpart in JavaScript benchmarks.
: IE9 was compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2 , and their server counterparts. Notably, it was the first version of IE to not support Windows XP.