Internet Explorer released a preview of its tenth version Tuesday. (credit Creative Commons)

Microsoft released Tuesday the third preview of Internet Explorer 10, the core browser for Windows 8 with support for a  variety of web applications. The browser builds on successful but under-the-radar additions to IE9 earlier this year.

Internet Explorer led the market from its launch in 1995. Then the browser lagged, literally and figuratively, with 2001's IE6, which stubbornly clung onto Windows until Windows 7.

Now, Internet Explorer holds only bout 22 percent of the browser market, according to reports from W3 Schools. The new version aims to reinvigorate the Microsoft browser.

From CNET News:

Microsoft fleshed out IE10's impressive list of new technologies at Microsoft's Build conference for developers. New items on the list such as Web Workers, Web Sockets, 3D Transforms, Application Cache, and IndexedDB are music to the ears of many Web developers who want to make rich, interactive Web sites.

But it's important for a much larger developer group, too: IE10 also is a key foundation for Windows 8 applications. That's why Microsoft is boasting of IE10's ability to run "chromeless" in a full-screen mode and a touch-friendly design.

The better the browser's support for new technologies, the better next-gen Windows apps can be. In particular, the apps based on browser technologies will run handily on tablets built with ARM processors, an area Microsoft cares passionately about as it watches millions of iPads fly off Apple store shelves.

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