Windows 10 Technical Preview 2 Tip: Enable Spartan’s Rendering Engine in Internet Explorer

As you may know, Windows 10 will ship with two browsers: Internet Explorer for legacy business users and a new browser currently code-named Spartan. This new browser is much more efficient and standards-compliant than IE, though it’s not available yet in WTP2. But here’s how you can at least enable its rendering engine in IE and see what all the fuss is about.

It’s simple: Just open IE in build 9926 or newer, navigate to about:flags and then set “Enable Experimental Web Platform Features” to Enabled. Then, restart IE as prompted.

According to Microsoft, the Spartan rendering engine is called Edge and is essentially a lean, stripped-down version of the Trident rendering engine from IE. But Spartan will eventually be much more than just a honed rendering engine. During last week’s Windows 10 media event, the firm discuss some major Spartan features, including:

Web page annotation with OneDrive sync. With an active stylus, touch, or just type, you can annotate web pages, leave comments as with Word documents, and sync the results between devices using OneDrive.

Improved distraction-free reading experience. Today’s IE 11 already includes a nice reading mode, but it only works in the Modern version of the browser. With Spartan, reading mode is going mainstream and is getting some new usability tweaks, too, including offline support.

Cortana integration. Yes, Cortana is coming to Windows, but this personal digital assistant is coming to Spartan, too, making it easier to find and do things online.

Plus, it’s also going to feature a (ahem) spartan new UI too.