Internet Explorer 8 - IE8 Beta 2 Direct Download Link Without WGA

After the almost disastrous launch of IE 8 Beta 1, the second beta of IE8 (Internet Explorer has been released for free download. Various improvements, enhancements, bug fixes and some new features are added to the new version of IE8 Beta 2.

Some features of IE8 Beta 2 include InPrivate browsing, reopen closed tabs, Smart Address Bar, Web Slices, Accelerators and SmartScreen Filter.

A lot of users’ reviews on IE8 Beta2 have been outright negative, which means that IE8 Beta 2 is not even worth a try. But for users who are daring to try, it’s possible to download and install IE8 Beta 2 version 8.0 from microsoft.com. There is no WGA validation required (Microsoft has removed the WGA check since IE7) for downloading and installing the web browser. So even if your PC is not genuine and fails validation, IE8 Beta 2 can still be installed and used, but probably it’s not a good choice, yet.

For convenient, here’s the direct download links and IE8 Beta 2 information pages on Microsoft Download Center for various operating system, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions available.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86)

Direct Download: IE8-WindowsVista-x86-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Vista x64 Edition and Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition

Direct Download: IE8-WindowsVista-x64-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Window XP SP2 and SP3

Direct Download: IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Server 2003 SP2 x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition

Direct Download: IE8-WindowsServer2003-x64-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86)

Direct Download: IE8-WindowsServer2003-x86-ENU.exe

Some features of IE8 Beta 2 include InPrivate browsing, reopen closed tabs, Smart Address Bar, Web Slices, Accelerators and SmartScreen Filter.

I'm running IE8 beta 2, and it is much better then beta 1, many sites that had problems with beta 1, run okay on beta2. Some of the first reviews complained about the Windows Live pages looking fuzzy on beta2, but it seems that is a thing of the past. I would say that it is probably worth a try. It seems to be quicker then ie7.

IE 8 Beta2 is still broken.

It doesn't work right even with Microsofts own outlook web interface mail service.

IE7 is horrible, but at least it renders/works right a majority of the time.

I use Firefox 3, 99% of the time, except where Microsoft deems it necessary to "require" IE (eg. Outlook web interface, microsofts own website)

IE 8 Beta2 is still broken.

It doesn't work right even with Microsofts own outlook web interface mail service.

IE7 is horrible, but at least it renders/works right a majority of the time.

I use Firefox 3, 99% of the time, except where Microsoft deems it necessary to "require" IE (eg. Outlook web interface, microsofts own website)

I think your explantion that the IE 8 Beta2 is still broken is wrong because the nature of Beta's are that those software is still in early stages of development and therefore will have maybe a lot of errors.

It would be much better and much more informative if you had posted what isn't working for YOU so others can benefit and avoiding the same problems.

Cheers.