Microsoft announced on Wednesday that the company"s latest browser, Internet Explorer 10, will not be available for Vista users. Just a day after announcing the Platform Preview for IE10, Vista users will not be able to install the Platform Preview, nor the final release of Internet Explorer 10.
Both the release notes and installation process mention that the IE10 Platform Preview 1 requires Windows 7 32 bit or 64bit for installation. According to Computerworld, Microsoft also made it clear that when Internet Explorer 10 launches, only Windows 7 users will be able to install the latest version of the browser.
The Internet Explorer Platform Preview requires Windows 7 (x86 or x64) Operating System. Platform Preview 4 and later require updates to be installed on Windows 7 systems, after which your computer will require a restart.
Microsoft ended support for Windows XP with Internet Explorer 9, which just launched last month on March 14. Following this trend, the next version of Internet Explorer will not support Windows Vista.
A Microsoft spokesperson notes the reasoning behind dropping Vista support in Internet Explorer 10 is to focus on innovation on a modern operating system and modern hardware. As market share for both Windows XP and Vista quickly fall, more and more products are likely to be limited to Windows 7.
Thanks to Mephistopheles for pointing this out on the forums!