Launching Internet Explorer Developer Channel

Original author: Jason Weber
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A few weeks ago (for the first time, at the DevCon 2014 conference ), we talked about striving to build a more open dialogue between the Internet Explorer team and the development community. Today we are introducing the Internet Explorer Developer Channel, a full-featured browser designed to give developers an overview of the functionality and new features of the browser that the Internet Explorer team is working on.



IE Developer Channel is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1 with Internet Explorer 11.

IE Developer Channel can work independently of IE11. It contains all the features of the current version of Internet Explorer and some new features that we are currently working on implementing. Check out the new features and tell us what you think about them on Twitter @IEDevChat or Connect .



Developer Tools Improvements F12


In April, we talked about the new features of the F12 tools in IE11 for Windows 8.1 with the update aimed at a better presentation of the data in the DOM Explorer and in the tools for analyzing memory and performance. IE Developer Channel demonstrates even more new features, such as:

  • Improved debugging tool, with event breakpoints , which allows you to even more quickly find errors associated with events.
  • Rich analysis capabilities in Memory and UI Responsiveness profilers. The update will reduce noise thanks to the advent of a multi-dimensional timeline filter . In this case, developers will be able to get more complete data thanks to the panels performance.measure () and dominator folding .
  • Improved navigation: added new keyboard shortcuts (ctrl + [and ctrl +]), and new header notifications , which will allow developers to quickly determine if any profilers are running and how many errors are found on the page.


A complete list of new features is available on MSDN .


This is how the color illumination of the UI Responsiveness DOM tool looks like

Automate tests with WebDriver


IE Developer Channel supports the new WebDriver standard , with which web developers can automate tests to test their sites. WebDriver is a programmable website remote control that allows you to check complex usage scenarios automatically. Learn how to configure WebDriver from this article and try out the sample WebDriver project .

Use an Xbox controller for web games


Want to try playing web games with your Xbox gamepad? IE Developer Channel supports the Gamepad API standard which provides for working with the controller using JavaScript. Try connecting the controller, and play one of these games Escape from XP , Hover.IE or Atari Arcade !


Take advantage of the gamepad to defeat Windows XP.

Other innovations also include increased performance with WebGL, support for instancing extensions, 16-bit textures, GLSL built-in variables, and triangle fans. This release improves the performance of Khronos WebGL Conformance Test 1.0.0from 93% to 97%. Learn more about these and other WebGL APIs on MSDN .

The first of many upcoming Developer Channel releases.


We continue to implement support for new features and standards in Internet Explorer and will constantly share early versions of code through the IE Developer Channel. You can always find the latest list of new features at DevChannel.Modern.IE . All the innovations of IE Developer Channel are also listed on Status.Modern.IE , our new portal with a plan to implement promising standards support in our web platform.



The current release of the IE Developer Channel uses a combination of App-V code and client to work in parallel with IE11. Virtualization has a negative effect on browser performance, so we do not recommend using the IE Developer Channel to evaluate the performance of your site. Also, we do not recommend using this version in a corporate environment. To learn more about known issues, check out our list of frequently asked questions .

We are waiting for your opinion on the Internet Explorer Developer Channel on Twitter, @IEDevChat or via Connect . Your feedback is critical to the development of the Microsoft web platform.

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