IE10 does the Metro desktop tango

Microsoft is maintaining its loyalty to the desktop for Internet Explorer, but claims to be shaking up IE10 for the new frontier, Metro tablets. 

Metro is an adaptation of the tile-based user interface Microsoft developed for its Windows 7 Phone, which is designed for use on tablet devices running the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Internet Explorer group program manager Rob Mauceri wrote in a blog post that IE10 for Metro offered a "new and improved way of browsing".

He said Microsoft had "considerably improved the browsing engine for IE10" by including a "fully hardware accelerated browsing engine" and plug-in free HTML5 support - features that rivals Chrome, Firefox and Opera have already announced.

Despite efforts to Metro-fy IE10, Microsoft's demo video includes many more controls on the desktop version of IE10.

One Metro IE10 highlight was, instead of the iOS style browser arrow button to return to a previously visited page, IE10 will offer a "side swipe". Similar arrow based browser control features are available on the desktop version of Microsoft's browser.

IE10 on Windows 8 across desktops and Metro devices will also allow users to invoke apps alongside the browser. 

Metro lead-in?

Melbourne-based Windows 7 and XenApp consultant Michael Pascoe told iTNews that Windows 8 Metro could lead the roll-in of Windows 8 desktop into businesses.  

Corporations, investment banks and analysts had pushed for the introduction of the iPad as a real business tool over the past year but - according to Pascoe - corporations have only ever implemented half-hearted solutions for iOS.  

"We've seen almost every company allow some use of the iOS device. But what I see is [an attitude that] 'We won't actively stop you, and if the iPad supports email, cool, but we aren't doing anything about it if something doesn't work'." 

The iPad may be raiding the enterprise, but Pascoe suspects Widows 8 Metro and application compatibility will be a nudge for organisatios to implement Windows 8 on the desktop.