Project Spartan is the codename for a Web browser introduced in Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system that the company created to eventually supplant the venerable Internet Explorer Web browser.
Microsoft developed the Project Spartan browser to be more streamlined and faster than IE as well as to be compatible across a wide variety of computers and devices and built specifically for the more modernized Web.
Some of Project Spartan’s features include built-in support for Cortana, Microsoft’s voice-activated intelligent assistant technology; capabilities for “inking” (writing or typing directly on a Web page) via integration with Microsoft OneNote and then sharing these notes or comments with others via e-mail or a social network; and Reading Lists and Reading Views for a more organized, efficiently managed approach to Web browsing.
Compatibility with Internet Explorer-Designed Web Sites
Project Spartan has been developed to ensure compatibility with existing Web sites that have been designed for Internet Explorer by dynamically loading the Internet Explorer 11 engine for legacy Web sites when needed, while opting for the new Project Spartan rendering engine when loading more modernized Web sites.
Users interested in getting a sneak peek at Project Spartan were given the opportunity to download the new browser as part of an updated Windows 10 Technical Preview release made available in March 2015 ahead of the operating system’s official release later in the same year.
Project Spartan Becomes Microsoft Edge
In April 2015 Microsoft announced that Project Spartan would be officially be named Microsoft Edge. Microsoft Edge will be the only browser in Windows Phone 10 and will be the default browser in Windows 10, with Internet Explorer 11 available for presenting legacy web sites.
