• Diyan
• On January 26, 2015

The new web browser will have a desktop and mobile version

At the press-conference last week, Microsoft confirmed that a new browser codenamed ‘Spartan’ would be included in the upcoming Windows 10 for Desktop PCs/tablets and mobile devices (with screens below 8 inches).

Through the Preview program, Windows insiders will soon get the ability to test Spartan on their PCs, while the mobile version for phones and small tablets is expected a bit later (in 2-3 months). Below are the first screenshots of Spartan for phones and you can notice there are two skins – light and dark. Another quite significant change, according to these first screenshots for the mobile, is that Microsoft has placed the address bar at the top which could be disturbing for some old Windows phone users accustomed to have the bar at the bottom in IE.

Microsoft describes Project Spartan as a modern browser working across devices with many new features for increased productivity. For example, one could add comments and notes to a webpage via touch or keyboard, and then save the page on OneNote (OneDrive) or share ideas with colleagues by sending them the link.

Another new feature is the integration with Cortana voice assistant, so Spartan will find pages and things much faster than current Internet Explorer. For example, if you start typing the web page in the address bar to check your flight departure time, Cortana will know exactly what you are looking for and display the result on the screen eliminating the need to visit that particular webpage. There is also a special reading mode you could enable with a single click.

As Microsoft explains, there is a new rendering engine inside Spartan, and this new browser if fully optimized to render all modern web pages. At the same time, Spartan is compatible with older pages designed to work with Internet Explorer and all IE features like ActiveX controls and Helper Object will continue to work on Spartan.

Source: Microsoft