Microsoft reveals Project Spartan web browser for Windows 10

Microsoft has officially announced Project Spartan, an all-new web browser which runs on Windows 10 and is expected to replace the ageing Internet Explorer.

Boasting a new interface, Spartan takes design cues from Google Chrome by putting its tabs in the title bar and above the address bar. Microsoft showed off Spartan's Cortana integration, where the voice-activated personal assistant can be used to search the web and provide extra information on the websites you're looking at.

An example of Cortana working with Spartan is how it can recognise when you're looking at a Facebook event page. If a restaurant is mentioned in the event description, Cortana will provide the venue's information and menus at the side of your screen.

There's also a reading list which lets you save articles offline to read later; these are synced between various Windows 10 devices (including your laptop, smartphone and tablet) to make every article on your list viewable offline on every device.

Another reading-centric feature of Spartan is a unified but customisable way to view bodies of text online, making it easier and more comfortable to read lengthy articles from websites with different layouts.

Web page annotation is also new for Spartan, where a page is 'frozen' and can then be drawn and written on using a stylus or finger. Pieces of websites can also be clipped, saved and shared.

Microsoft said Spartan will not appear in the first preview build of Windows 10 - and will take more development before it arrives on phones - but will eventually become a fully-featured browser available on all Windows 10 devices, from phones and tablets to laptops, desktops and all-in-one PCs.