IE8 launched by Microsoft

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Samantha Rose Hunt20 March 2009, 2:50 PM

Microsoft has finally delivered the browser that its fans have been anticipating, hopefully.


Today during his keynote speech at the Mix 09 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada Dean Hachamovitch, the head of the IE8 development team, launched the new browser.

It is currently available for download in 25 languages on the Microsoft website and can be downloaded to Windows XP, Vista, and Server in either 32-bit or 64-bit editions.

This launch follows behind the release of Silverlight Beta, and the preview of Expression Blend 3 web design and prototyping tool.

It would seem that Microsoft is finally delivering for the people."Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser — safety, speed and greater ease of use," Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft said in a statement (conveniently managing to avoid mentioning anything about standards compliance, even though that is a greatly improved area in IE8.) "With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match."

The browser leaves much to be desired when it comes to JavaScript and extensions however Microsoft claims it packs a little more punch than Mozilla’s Firefox in its initial no add-ons state in terms of browsing capabilities. For example it is equipped with Accelerators, tab assistance, search improvements and WebSlices. InPrivate browsing also known as “porn mode” which leaves no evidence that a browsing session ever existed to those who use the PC after you, additionally it prevents the monitoring of your browsing activities by third parties. Microsoft now has a Smart Address bar which is similar to Firefox’s “Awesome Bar.”

Microsoft really needs to pat itself on the back this time for launching its first standards compliant browser. This means that it fully supports Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 2.1. Older versions of IE required backward compatibility on Microsoft's thoroughly broken interpretation of web standards. IE8 comes equipped with a standards mode and an IE7 mode, which allows users to render sites which have been built to previous IE specifications. IE8 comes with an “auto render” mode that uses a Web site list which has determined which sites are known to have trouble rendering correctly in IE8. If someone happens to stumble upon one of those sites while browsing then it will automatically render in IE7 by default.

You can download IE8 here, though as usual if you work in a large organisation there's a high chance you have a lazy IT manager clinging to IE6 because it is compatible with all the lazily written apps produced or commissioned by the IT department. In that case you'll need to find a way to break the download and installation restrictions on your work PC and simultaneously lobby the IT manager's boss to understand why tying the company to a five year old web browser is going to be bad for the company in the long term.

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NetR@nger (User):

While i dont use ie much,downloaded it to check it out.

20 March 2009, 4:19 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

Not in any hurry to download it. That said, the stated aims of IE8 are a really positive step.

For the time being, I'll leave it to others to see how well IE8 achieves those aims.
How big is the Download? The final install?

20 March 2009, 4:25 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Aubrey (Advanced member):

"It would seem that Microsoft is finally delivering for the people."

Are you havin' a laff? MS is playing catch-up.

"Microsoft really needs to pat itself on the back this time for launching its first standards compliant browser."

For Version 8? Really?

I'm actually glad they are responding to competition in this market.

20 March 2009, 4:43 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Halcon (Advanced member):

At the file size of 16.1MB, the latest incarnation of Internet Explorer is very slow.
The program freezes and crash.
In a more dire situation, the program cannot be killed using Ctrl, Alt and Del keys; this procedure takes longer.
Fortunately, I don't depend on ie for my web surfing sessions, I prefer Firefox because is more robust and reliable.
Tough luck Microsoft!

21 March 2009, 2:16 AM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (Regular user):

Lazy IT managers? How about the dumb users who can't cope with tabs in dialogs, let alone a browser (where it's possible their work my "disappear")?

I'm sticking with IE6 at the school I work for because I KNOW that some people are too thick to work IE7. Those who want tabs can use Firefox.

21 March 2009, 9:17 AM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

The Big Baboo (User):

Yep (hic 'scuse me ) The last time I visited an "awesome bar" I didn't get home till five in the morning and boy was I schnookered :) Cheers everybody and I'll keep using Firefox because it just works so well.

21 March 2009, 12:17 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Spin (New user):

Is anybody else having difficulty downloading IE8?

I cliked on the link and clicked "Download Now" but i don't get any dialogue box asking if i want to "Run", "Save" or "Cancel" even though i disabled my pop-up blocker.

So then i clicked on the link which says "If your download doesn't start automatically click here", I selected "Australia" and then "Vista" and still the download does not start. WTF??

21 March 2009, 6:50 PM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

FostWare (User):

Quoting Spin:
Is anybody else having difficulty downloading IE8?


Yeah, Kaspersky was blocking popups and the click-tracking site for both auto and manual choices.


Vista 32-bit
XP 32-bit






22 March 2009, 10:12 AM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Potoroo (User):

I had no problems downloading IE8 on day 1. The XP version is a bit over 1M larger than the IE7 download (16,488K v 15,091K); the Vista version is 13.618K.

Installation was fine. The first time I ran it on XP Pro SP3 it went silly and consumed 50% CPU but restarting it fixed that and it has not happened again. As I write FF3.0.7 is chewing up 50% CPU with only this page open (and has done so for over 15 minutes), so I presume it now and IE8 then were doing some kind of background update checking or whatever.

It seems to have picked up my IE7 settings but annoyingly it reset the Tools > Internet Options > Security > Miscellaneous > Enable Mixed Content to Prompt (the default setting on IE7 that drives everyone crazy). It will take a while to pick up any other, more subtle settings changes it might have made.

This APCmag page renders essentially identically on both IE8 and FF3.0.7, with the plethora of ads and what have you not lining up properly on the right-hand edge in both. Font rendering is the only obvious visual difference, eg, FF's rendering of the article text appearing thinner and lighter than IE8's.

- Tab grouping is useful for me.
- Accelerators are interesting and potentially useful once you disable the MS defaults and install options like Search Google Australia.
- The phishing filter has been renamed SmartScreen Filter; only time will tell whether it works better than it did on IE7.
- I have turned the Suggested Sites option off.
- Reopening your previous browser session is now possible, a la FF3.

I have had no crashes on either XP or Vista. IE8 sometimes becomes momentarily unresponsive when opening or closing tabs while there is activity going on (like other tabs still being downloaded or rendered). FF3 is marginally better in this respect but I suspect this is more a mater of fine tuning IE8 than a fundamental problem.

Thus far I have encountered no compatibility issues on the web sites I have visted, although if I do the Compatibility View button (which rerenders the page as if it were IE7) is right next to the Refresh button. In any event, sites that are optimised for IE7 can easily insert the new metatag that tells IE8 to render the page as IE7.

After two days my opinion is that IE8 is a genuine improvement, but I will continue to use IE or FF according to need.

23 March 2009, 10:51 AM (11 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

bob D (New user):

As one of those lazy IT managers clinging to IE6 i might suggest that referring to us as lazy IT managers might not be the best way to win us over on this argument.

Also, If there is one thing that us lazy IT managers know it is change brings disruption. Someone once said that change is inevitable , especially in IT. You might excuse us for trying to hold back the tide of this inevitable change for as long as possible when it is us that needs to test the change, make the change , evaluate the success of the change, roll-back the change, clear up the mess from the disruption of the change etc whilst politely fending off the complaints of the wannabee IT expert from accounts who insists on having the latest browser because he has it at home.

24 July 2009, 11:56 PM (7 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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