Internet Explorer 9 Won't Run on Windows XP

Windows XP users, which amount to more than 50 percent of the operating system market, will be left out because Microsoft plans to "continue to focus on how we do a great job with Windows 7," according to Microsoft exec Ryan Gavin, who made the statement to The Register.

As the cards fall, Internet Explorer 9 is not downloadable for XP users and is only downloadable for those running Vista or Windows 7 because the browser uses DirectX 10 for hardware acceleration, which isn't available for XP machines.

DirectX 10, Gavin said, is necessary for HTML5 features.