Microsoft have released Windows Internet Explorer 9 today. It will be available via Windows Updates shortly, however for now it must be downloaded from the Microsoft website. IE9 has been released for Vista, 7 and 2008 Server machines. XP and earlier editions cannot run IE 9.

The IEAK is still in Release Candidate phase, I do believe it will be a production release as IE9 is released on Windows Updates.

I’m yet to benchmark IE9, however so far there are a string of reviews that don’t give a clear picture of how IE9 performs – as some say its faster, and some say its slower.

The most significant change has been the interface – the menu, address & navigation bars are now much smaller. Additionally there is now a “do not track” option which reportedly makes it easy for users to keep their browsing habits private from advertising networks.

In other news Adobe has advised of a vulnerability in Flash that affects Reader & Acrobat as well. The vulnerability could cause a crash and potentially allow the attacker to take control of the affected system. Adobe plans on releasing a fix next week. Great work on revealing a vulnerability with no fix, guys.