Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

[Guest Reimar]

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Now Available

We’re excited to release IE8 Beta 2 today for public download. You can find it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. Please try it out!

You’ll find versions for 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. In addition to English, IE8 Beta 2 is available in Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German. Additional languages will be available soon.

While Beta 1 was for developers, we think that anyone who browses or works on the web will enjoy IE8 Beta 2. Before the team blogs about our Beta 2 in detail, here’s an overview of what you’ll find in IE8.

We focused our work around three themes: everyday browsing (the things that real people do all the time), safety (the term most people use for what we’ve called ‘trustworthy’ in previous posts), and the platform (the focus of Beta 1, how developers around the world will build the next billion web pages and the next waves of great services).

Everyday Browsing

We looked very hard at how people really browse the web. We looked at a lot of data about how people browse and tried a lot of different designs in front of many kinds of people, not just technologists. As tempting as it is to list here all the changes both big and small in IE8, we’ll take a more holistic approach. That’s how we built the product and how we’d like to talk about it.

From our customer research, we saw that the bulk of user activity outside of web pages involved tabs and “navigation” – the act of getting to the site the user wants to get to. We also knew that adding features has an impact only if they’re “in the flow” of how people actually use the product. Another menu item might matter in a checklist on a blog somewhere, but won’t matter to real people browsing. That’s why IE8’s New Tab experience is so remarkable: it’s obvious – after you see it:

Download: Internet Explorer 8 (English, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese)

[Guest Reimar]

Maybe I should mention that the file size is 23+ MByte and at the moment you start the installation, it connects again to the internet and download something more!

Cheers.

[Daffy D]

“Reimar" I tried out IE 8 Beta some weeks ago and though I liked some of the new features it did not work properly for me. I can’t remember all the little niggles but the links were in an additional toolbar, not a dropdown menu like IE7’ so I had a total of 4 toolbars that took up nearly a quarter of my screen also the “Revert to IE7” tab did not work so had to uninstall it.

I like to us a program called FavOrg that finds, manage and store WebPage icons, this did not work in IE8 also Ms D had trouble searching Thai web pages though this could have been a problem with Google, though since reverting back to IE7 this problem has disappeared.

Is this latest Beta version better than the previous one?

[frodo]

Thanks for that. After seeing your post and reading more about it on CNN, I'll give it a try.

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- The next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Web browser makes it easier for people to surf the Internet without leaving a trace.

Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer allows users to search the Web without leaving a trace.

Companies that sell advertisements online, including Microsoft, can electronically gather tidbits about Web surfers' habits and then use that information to help decide what kinds of ads to show.

However, in the newest "beta" test version of Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer 8, which was made available Wednesday, a mode called InPrivateBrowsing lets users surf without having a list of sites they visit get stored on their computers.

The program also covers other footprints, including temporary Internet files and cookies, the small data files that Web sites put on visitors' computers to track their activities.

CNN: Surf Without Leaving a Trace

[tominbkk]

Firefox 3.

'nuff said.

[richard10365]

“Reimar" I tried out IE 8 Beta some weeks ago and though I liked some of the new features it did not work properly for me. I can’t remember all the little niggles but the links were in an additional toolbar, not a dropdown menu like IE7’ so I had a total of 4 toolbars that took up nearly a quarter of my screen also the “Revert to IE7” tab did not work so had to uninstall it.

I like to us a program called FavOrg that finds, manage and store WebPage icons, this did not work in IE8 also Ms D had trouble searching Thai web pages though this could have been a problem with Google, though since reverting back to IE7 this problem has disappeared.

Is this latest Beta version better than the previous one?

I tried it out too and had problems. I hope this beta is better than the last.

[poshthai]

I have downloaded the version 8 and its speeded up my browsing,very good overall.

[dotcom]

If they want me to run beta software they can pay me to test it for them.

[Guest Reimar]

"Reimar" I tried out IE 8 Beta some weeks ago and though I liked some of the new features it did not work properly for me. I can't remember all the little niggles but the links were in an additional toolbar, not a dropdown menu like IE7' so I had a total of 4 toolbars that took up nearly a quarter of my screen also the "Revert to IE7" tab did not work so had to uninstall it.

I like to us a program called FavOrg that finds, manage and store WebPage icons, this did not work in IE8 also Ms D had trouble searching Thai web pages though this could have been a problem with Google, though since reverting back to IE7 this problem has disappeared.

Is this latest Beta version better than the previous one?

I tried it out too and had problems. I hope this beta is better than the last.

Daffy: I didn't had use the IE8 before but I posted the link here because some users was like that browser.

I just installed this Beta version and works ok. But more I can't tell about it.

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

If they want me to run beta software they can pay me to test it for them.

It's up to you to run that version or not, nobody force you to do so! And nobody asked you or anyone else for to run that or any other software.

Cheers.

[Daffy D]

“Reimar” I took a chance and installed this latest version of IE8 Beta and it does seem to be working better. A few nice touches to make browsing easier, I particularly like the accelerator feature of highlighting a word and being able to look up references to it or define with a dictionary.

The FavOrg icon program works now but I still miss the favorite links that used to be in a dropdown menu in IE7.

While on the subject of software downloads I like to use the opportunity to thank you for all the programs you make available to us. I always have a look at what is offered and have added quite a few to my collection. Recent downloads I particularly like are Rising Antivirus and Macrim Reflect both great programs.

Thanks.