Microsoft IE8 released

Microsoft has released Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 for download from early this morning.

In order to watch video content you need to enable javascript and install Flash player version 8 or above.

Microsoft is touting the newest version of its browser, available here, as being faster and offering "leading edge" security features.

"Customers have made clear what they want in a web browser — safety, speed and greater ease of use," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. "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."

Microsoft has claimed IE8 blocks two to four more malware attacks than other browsers, quoting a study by NSS Labs.

It also said that IE8 had beaten other top browsers in page load time on almost 50 per cent of the 25 top comScore Inc websites.

Tab colouring in Internet Explorer 8
(Credit: Microsoft)

Other features the browser include are "accelerators" which transfer information between applications such as email and mapping services to cut down the normal number of clicks, and "Web slices" which lets the user save predefined sections of a website for instant viewing. Colour coding of tabs and tab sandboxing are some additional tidbits some might enjoy.

Microsoft showcased the final browser at its Mix 09 conference in Las Vegas where the company also unveiled a Silverlight 3 beta the day before. The new Silverlight features out-of-browser support, which allows Silverlight applications to run on the desktop as well as graphics improvements, GPU acceleration, H.264 video support and tweaks to improve rich internet application development productivity.

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Talkback 10 comments

    Doesn't work Vista and Westpac Banking Greg -- 23/03/09

    I installed on Friday and it looked fine. On SUnday I logged onto Westpac internet banking and IE shudown due to a data execution error. Tried several times after turning DEP of but still no good. I uninstalled.

    Yes it does. Fix your computer. Mel Sommersberg -- 25/03/09 (in reply to #320126425)

    It works fine for me on the Westpac site along with New England Credit Union, Citibank and Newcastle Permanent Building Society.

    Most of the banking sites are actually optimised for IE, much to the chagrin of many people.

    IE8 Anonymous -- 23/03/09

    Microsoft is so freaking irrelevant. They are so into pushing their own line of products that all they have done by doing so is produce inferior products across the board. Acrobat Reader, Google, ESX, AVAMAR, Facebook, Youtube, iPhone, etc. You will never be the market leader in every little technical niche. It's not 1995 anymore. Your OS is not important.

    No one cares about vista, no one cares about microsoft virtualization, no one about microsoft hosted services, and no one cares about IE8.

    The only time we even think about microsoft now is when they are forced to buy a new OS that we don't need and don't want.

    ... Matthew -- 24/03/09 (in reply to #320126443)

    And then enters Linux

    As more and more of what we do is web based, linux seems a better and better option. After all Firefox works exactly the same way.

    agreed... Daniel -- 24/03/09 (in reply to #320126443)

    you're exactly right - OS just ain't important... windows, osx, linux... although the last one is free...!

    Stupid Anonymous -- 21/04/09 (in reply to #320126443)

    Narrow minded anti microsoft. Yeah agree not the best, but in an enterprise environment it works out easier and cheaper to run microsoft, which makes it the best. The addition costs of a "free OS and apps" do not make it worth while. And while enterprise and a majority of small business continue to use microsoft open source will fail. Anyway open source can be just as bad as microsoft with bugs and vulnerabilities. MS just a bigger target hence more issues. Is MS over priced yes, could it be better, yes. But then so could over priced apple,vmware, cisco, redhat, oracle, unix, ibm, hp, oh just about all of them. Yes they push their own products, they are a company trying to make money. They would not be around if they didn't. Bit of a stupid comment. Narrow minded.

    Anti Microsoft Anonymous -- 30/04/09 (in reply to #320130899)

    I am tried of hearing from the linux love boys. face the facts Windows is well known, well supported and easy to manage. until linux actually does something new it will always be in 3rd place

    I care. Anonymous -- 30/05/09 (in reply to #320126443)

    I care about Vista, and I care about IE8. They are actually both great. If you got off your high horse for a moment and actually tried Microsoft's "something new", you might be pleasantly surprised. And with MS owning 80% of the general OS market & 95% of the enterprise market, ranting about MS being irrelevant is ignoring reality. Wake up!

    IE8 is stoopid Anonymous -- 28/03/09

    IE simply repeats after lengthy delay what Firefox has introduced much earlier.
    Tried IE8 - very unstable, lots of problems. had to uninstall.
    Firefox is just great

    Nokia music manager crash when I update to IE8 Tony -- 01/05/09

    I tried IE8 on 29 Apr 2009 on a vista home premium OS machine.

    For some reasons, my Nokia music manager v2.1 cannot be launched (crashed everytime I try to launch it) after it is installed. Tried 8 times, including restarting windows twice.

    After I uninstall IE8, the nokia music manager v2.1 works properly again. I am not sure whether it only happens to me.

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