57. Installing Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer 9 is Microsoft's latest web browser. This edition of Internet Explorer is reported to be faster than previous versions and also contains numerous improvements, including the much requested Download Manager.

IE 9 is certainly cleaner looking and take up far less real estate than previous versions of the browser. This has been achieved by disabling the Menu bar, Favorites bar, Command bar and Status bar. Although these options have been disabled by default they are easily re-enabled by right clicking on a vacant area between the address bar and the Home icon and selecting the relevant options from the drop down menu.

It should be noted that IE 9 is only available for install on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. All Windows operating systems prior to Windows Vista are are unable to support Internet Explorer 9. Therefore Windows XP users will not be able to install this latest browser.

To begin the installation proceed as follows:

Click on the Windows Internet Explorer Products download link. The Internet Explorer web page will now open with the following screen (see fig: 57-1) below.

Fig: 57-1 Windows Internet Explorer download site.
Once on the Internet explorer download site, click the Download button to begin the download of a 530kb setup file. When the File Download - Security Warning box appears, Click the Save button to save the file to your computer.

Fig: 57-2 Click the Save button to save the file to your computer.
The Save As window will now appear. The file name is already entered in the file name dialogue box, so simply Click the Save button to continue.

Fig: 57-3 File will be automatically saved in the Download folder
The small initial setup file will begin to download.

Fig: 57-4 Downloading Internet Explorer 9
Once the file has been downloaded, Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you saved the IE 9 file. By default this will be the Download folder. Once you have located the downloaded file, Click on it to start the initial download and installation of Internet explorer 9.

Fig: 57-5 Click on the application file to begin the installation.
The User Account Control box will appear asking if you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer. Click Yes to continue.

Fig: 57-6 Click Yes in the user Account Control box
As you will usually have applications already running in the background, Setup will ask your permission to close these application before it can continue.
The default option is Close programs for me (I've already saved my work). You can either accept the default option, which means that your Anti Virus software may have to be closed down too, or you can select the ignore option. We have used both methods and have not seen any detrimental effects to the install.
Once you have decided which option you are going to take, Click the Continue button.

Fig: 57-7 Select what you want Setup to do and then Click the Continue button
Internet Explorer will now start to download the necessary files from the Microsoft server. Once the files have been downloaded Internet Explorer will begin to automatically install. This may take a few minutes.

Fig: 57-8 Installing Internet Explorer 9
Once Internet explorer 9 has been installed you will be asked to Restart your computer. To begin, Click the Restart Now button.

Fig: 57-9 Click the Restart Now button to complete the installation
As your computer begins the restart sequence Windows will start configuring the new updates. At this point Do Not turn your computer off.

Fig: 57-10 Configuring Internet Explorer Updates
Once the configuration has reached approximately 30% your computer will begin to Log Off and then shut down.

Fig: 57-11 Your computer will now begin the restart sequence
Once your computer has restarted you will see the Starting Windows Logo.

Fig: 57-12 The Starting Windows screen
Windows will now prepare to configure the updates once again. Once again Do Not turn your computer off.

Fig: 57-13 Preparing to configure Windows
Once configuration has reached 100% the installation will be complete.
Once you open Internet Explorer your home page will momentarily appear and then the Internet Explorer 9 Get Started page will appear.

Fig: 57-14 The Internet Explorer Get Started Window