Microsoft showed off a lean, muscular new Internet Explorer crafted to spotlight slick websites and beat back competition from Firefox and Google.

More than 40 million copies of IE9 have already been downloaded as part of the process leading up to its official release, according to Microsoft. 'All of these partners are using IE9 to make a more beautiful Web, starting today.' 'We have worked with partners reaching a billion active Internet users,' Hachamovitch said. The long list of partners that have adapted websites to IE9 includes Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Hulu, and Yahoo!, according to Microsoft. IE9 is built to make the most of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, as well as graphics processing chips that can power videos, games and graphics.

'We took a dramatically different tack,' he continued. 'Things are about to change,' Microsoft corporate vice president Dean Hachamovitch said just hours earlier at a press conference at the South By Southwest Interactive technology festival here. Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was available for download in 30 languages at. 'IE9 has just released around the world,' a booming voice told a cheering crowd at 11:00 pm Monday (0400 GMT Tuesday) in the Austin City Limits Live concert hall where a launch party was being held.

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