MICROSOFT’S LATEST internet browser was downloaded more than 2.3 million times in the 24 hours after it was officially launched, as the company tries to regain some of the market share it has lost to Google and Mozilla.

Internet Explorer’s senior director Ran Gavin disclosed the figures in a blog post on the Windows teamblog.com website.

With 40 million downloads in beta, expectations are high for Internet Explorer 9. The finished version of the browser became available on Tuesday, boasts hardware acceleration that improves video and audio performance, supports HTML 5, has stronger privacy controls and improved handling of web applications.

Brian Kealy, western EMEA lead for Internet Explorer, says: “IE9 is far and away a much richer experience than any other browser. Most browsers use the CPU to drive delivery of web pages, visuals and graphics. That ignores the graphics processing unit, which is the engine you use when you’re watching a DVD on your machine.

“IE9 activates that other 90 per cent of your PC to drive the experience you have on your internet,” he adds. “It’s vastly different and much faster than anything you’ve seen before.”

Users can put websites, or even a single site page from a site, directly on the Windows 7 taskbar, allowing them to check e-mail, update social networks or keep up with breaking news easily.

Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser, although competition from Mozilla, Google and Opera has seen its market share decline in recent years.

Microsoft hopes IE9 might be the version that stops users abandoning its browser software. The company took on board the feedback from beta users and more than 2,000 tweaks and changes were made to the software before it was finally ready to ship.

Mr Kealy claims IE9 is the safest browser. Microsoft has introduced tracking protection, which allows users to control what data they share online and with what sites through adding tracking lists.