Summary

If ever there were a poster child for the dual–one might say dueling–nature of the Windows 8 user experiences, it’s Internet Explorer 10. As with the OS on which it runs, Internet Explorer 10 offers two separate but complementary user experiences: a standard Windows application that runs in the desktop environment and a touch‑first, Metro‑style app.

The Metro‑style version of Internet Explorer 10 works best on tablets and other touch‑based devices, offering all of the gesture support you’d expect combined with the best features of the desktop browser.

For users on traditional PCs, or those who prefer the more full‑featured desktop versions, Internet Explorer 10 builds on the improvements of previous IE versions, offering better performance, better web standards support, and, of course, some great integration with the Metro browser.

The strangest part of this dual browser experience, perhaps, is understanding how each of these products works with the other and, more confusingly, with third‑party browsers. Here, the dual nature of Internet Explorer becomes more confusing than complementary. But with a little bit of understanding, you’ll be able to configure your PC to work with the browser or browsers you prefer.

Chapter 8

Get It Done with Windows 8’s Productivity Apps

In This Chapter