Microsoft IE9 leaves Windows XP users out in the cold

Launching its new browser last night at an event at the South By Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, Microsoft emphasised IE9's the speed and power. The company said it comes from use of HTML 5 and hardware acceleration, which means the browser can tap into the processing power from the PCs graphics processor in addition to the central processor.

"We love HTML 5 so much, we wanted it to actually work," Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Internet Explorer, said.

However, according to analysts, the launch was something of a damp squib, as IE9 is not supported on Windows XP, the operating system running on 67 per cent of corporate desktops.

According to Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's senior director of Internet Explorer, the company had to consider one of the two options, namely either to push the web forward which required a modern operating system or to design for the lowest common denominator.

Microsoft opted to "push the web forward" on demand from users for better websites. He said older operating systems such as Windows XP might not be able to cope with the demands of the new browser, nor would the older PCs running XP.

According to Gavin, IE had been "fully re-architected". He said hardware acceleration required for a modern browser meant "you have to write for the operating system".