The latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Beta (IE8) is now available for download. Internet Explorer, 8 Beta 1 is a developer preview for web designers and developers to help prepare their websites for the launch of the final release Internet Explorer 8.
Internet Explorer 8 introduces a new way to seamlessly experience the best of the web whether you are a web developer writing to standards or a user discovering a new online service. Be one of the first developers to take advantage of improvements in Internet Explorer 8 for your websites and applications. Check the release notes.
New Features in IE8
Safety Filter – building on the success of the Phishing Filter, continues to block known Phishing sites and now blocks sites known to contain malicious software that could harm users’ computers or steal their information.
Favorites bar (Links bar makeover) to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.
WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.
Activities are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another.
Download IE8
IE8 aims to deliver full CSS 2.1 support, better scripting performance, and HTML5 support in the final IE8 product. If you decide to go testing, get the Microsoft Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer Add-on that allows the user to submit a report to Microsoft for webpages they believe are having rendering problems, scripting errors, or various other types of problems.
Internet Explorer 8 can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 will not install on prerelease versions of Windows Vista SP1 or on checked versions of Windows. Download here.