Microsoft quietly releases Internet Explorer 8 beta 1

Posted by Joshua Karp on Mar 5, 2008 4:29 pm 22 comments

Filed in News, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Thanks for the heads up on this one, Microsoft. The company has just released a public beta version of their new web browser, Internet Explorer 8. The supposedly-standards compliant browser showed up out of nowhere this afternoon on the company’s site. Available immediately, you should be able to install the software on any machine running Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server edition. We haven’t had much time to put it through the motions here, but given the "beta" tag, we’re not expecting anything terribly polished. Let us know if you take the plunge and discover any new features of note. Oh, and Microsoft: You might want to consider releasing a product like this with a bit more fanfare. Just a thought.

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22 comment(s) for this post.

On Mar 5, 2008 @ 4:35 pm, Harshnator Said:

How was this a quiet release? They announced and did demo of IE8 at MIX 08 conference.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 4:37 pm, inc Said:

i was jst about to send you info on this and you got it before i did… you are good at this Joshua… lol

cheers

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 4:57 pm, TM Said:

Microsoft _”quietly”_ releases Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1.

Maybe I’m just being picky here but how exactly is an announcement at Mix’08 by Dean a quiet announcement? This is their noisiest beta for IE yet?

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 5:22 pm, Aaron Myers Said:

Um, yeah - so now Microsoft Update doesn’t work because it says I don’t have Internet Explorer 5+ - smart move Microsoft!

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 5:26 pm, dondgc Said:

Well, it froze the first time I tried to post this - but good catch by BGR.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 5:44 pm, Ben Said:

We got some news here BGR. Keep it up Joshua.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 6:07 pm, MSM Said:

@Aaron Myers : perhaps people should read before downloading… says clearly it is for web developers and designers to test. Really you expect windows update to work? please save yourself and call “kidding”

Other interesting link related to ie8:

http://ie8.ebay.com/

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 6:21 pm, Radio Said:

I love FireFox.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 6:38 pm, Galvatron Said:

i dosn’t roll well with your old tool bars but hey i looads up alot faster thas always good it als emuates IE7 too

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 6:51 pm, BrianC Said:

Tried it and installed well. So far so good. Love the IE7 emulate mode for backward compatibility.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 6:55 pm, Jeff B. Said:

Yea Firefox is still better. Period.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 7:02 pm, C DM Said:

The beta 1 is there mainly as a preview for developers and designers, and most of them knew it was coming. It’s not meant to be a wide release for even close to a lot of people, which is why it wasn’t announced or advertised much at all–that was in fact the plan. It’s also an early beta, so there definitely will be issues and people who use it (which again is aimed at developers and designers) generally install it on some system that is not their primary mostly for (compatibility) testing–again, part of the reason not to simply advertise it to any John and Jane who wouldn’t really know any better.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 7:28 pm, ASB Said:

For starters, it freezes everytime http://www.boygeniusreport.com is accessed. Althought Emulate IE7 works just fine.

This thing is really a Beta

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 7:55 pm, Brandon Said:

I don’t know why I find it funny that I’m using the Firefox Beta to download the IE Beta.

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On Mar 5, 2008 @ 11:55 pm, carmen nissan Said:

because your a super geek? lol

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 12:25 am, Brandon Said:

Lol, I don’t even consider myself one, but to the average person, you’re probably right.

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 12:47 am, Kurt Said:

Well it appears that streaming Netflix doesn’t work with the Beta….for what thats worth

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 1:01 am, Jeff B. Said:

I stay away from IE all together but somebody try Hulu and lemme know if that works.

Thanks.

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 8:19 am, Tyler Brock Said:

FANFARE?! its about time this browser did “what it’s supposed to do”

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 8:48 am, Galvatron Said:

yea i dosn”t stream too well youd hav to reoad the video i was wationg some wrbsite and i had to reload the videio atleast 6 times or the browser would crash

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 2:53 pm, robert Said:

tried it…..it runs slower than the current tilt/kaiser with no video drivers.

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On Mar 6, 2008 @ 6:46 pm, win_mo Said:

Robert:
i guess you don’t know how frustrating it is to own a Mogul, with no drivers

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