Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Launch Set at March 14 at SXSW Interactive

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Microsoft says “a more beautiful web” will launch on March 14, 2011. That’s actually Microsoft-speak for “We’re launching IE9.” The event will happen this March 14 at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas.

After a 12-month period of previews and IE9 release candidates, Microsoft is finally ready to formally launch Internet Explorer 9. The launch will be held in Austin, Texas at the upcoming South-by-Southwest Interactive (SXSW), an annual geekfest attended by folks who probably don’t use IE anymore.

Still, Microsoft promises the event to be exciting, with a concert by Yeasayer, the Head and the Heart, and Fences. For the rest of us who will be stuck at home, we can probably keep content knowing we can download IE9 starting 9 PM Pacific time.

Microsoft’s web browsers have not exactly been phenomenal, although IE9 is said to provide a drastic user interface change. For one, we will see less of the browser itself, as its UI elements will be minimized to the background. IE9 will also take advantage of Windows 7′s jump-lists, as you can pin websites to the taskbar and these sites can take advantage of HTML5 to act more like desktop applications, complete with taskbar alerts.

Internet Explorer 9 will only support Windows Vista, Windows 7 and onwards, though. This means that if you’re still using Windows XP (like 43% of the world), it’s probably time to upgrade.