Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

[spacesurfer]

Download the new beta 2 Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.

They have introduced some great new features like color coded tabs that are grouped together. That can be done in firefox with some extensions, but it's built-in to IE8.

Improved search.

Hummm, Firefox is still the best with a wide extensions availability.

[Mr Snrub]

I like the InPrivate browsing mode which doesn't bother to cache any information about browsed pages - very handy if borrowing someone's PC briefly without relogging.

The real SLD is also highlighted in the address bar, which is great for visual security (further protection against phishing).

The find-as-you-type feature I love - this was pretty much the only reason I installed IE7Pro, so that's gone from my system now.

Opening a new tab also allows you to reopen tabs closed in the current session, which is nice as I asked for that feature in 7.0 and missed the boat.

I'm liking this a lot so far

[spacesurfer]

IE8 still has some annoying features that are present in IE7.

One that I can't stand is when copying text from a code box, if you "triple-click", then it selects the whole box and not just the line like in Firefox.

IE8 beta 2 is turning out to be great but I'm not sure if I can give up Firefox and the extensions of firefox make it so much more easier to use.

If you like the colored tabs in IE8 and want the same functionality in Firefox, try this extension: Tab Kit.

[CoffeeFiend]

IE8 still has some annoying features that are present in IE7.

Namely support for ActiveX & BHO stuff (thanks, but no thanks!)

Firefox and the extensions of firefox make it so much more easier to use.

I sure can't. Their browser is slowly catching up to the basic barebone Firefox browser (e.g. finally starting to support old established standards half-decently), but I definitely couldn't live without my extensions as they make a world of difference. Not so much a question of easy to use, as "advanced" functions.

Edit: well, I won't be wasting time trying beta 2, looks like is resource intensive to say the least... Like 3x the RAM usage of Firefox and using hundreds of threads.

Edited September 2, 2008 by crahak

[Stoner81]

IE will never beat FF imho but thats me!!! I will use IE8 once it is released properly and then slipstream it into my instaill dvd

Stoner81

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Just installed IE8 on Vista.

heres my pro/cons list vs Firefox/IE7

Pros

• Translucent header and address bar themed to match Aero
  
• Zoom feature has nice status bar % indicator in FF i have to use View->Zoom->Reset to make sure im back at 100%
  
• didnt change my homepage when installed
  
• PDF was displayed outside of browser. Unfortunately, this is probably not the way adobe will make future versions of their reader work.
  
• domain highlighting is good
  
• reopen closed tabs is cool but not as awesome as undo closed tabs in FF (which remembers form data, scroll position etc)
  
• status bar seems to stay turned on unlike IE7
  
• Porn mode is a good idea. I hope i can force it to be always on with a GPo for public terminals
  
• IE8 tried to save the session i had open when i used "End Process" to simulate a crash. but it crashed trying to restore them (ill leave this as a pro cause this is a beta)
  
  
• even after the crash "open last browser session" is available on a new tab after restarting
  
• Bravo! The ability to disable all "Accelerators" in the setup wizard is a beautiful thing and not something Ive come to expect in a MS browser
  
• it seems to have the ability to read my mind. its picture worthy:
  
  

Cons

• I had to reboot to install a browser. C'mon we've reached the point where i can reinstall almost every driver on the system without a reboot but i cant testdrive IE8 without a reboot?
  
• IE7s search provider was Google before the install. can you guess what it was after IE8 was installed?
  
• tabs still looked look like they were "Pasted on" by 5th grader with MS paint when used with any theme that isn't a Microsoft approved shade of blue
  
• OK i take back what i said about the ugly blue tabs because they are now a fugly green for some unexplained reason (ok i figured out that was grouping but its still fugly)
  
• Zoom feature seems a lot "jumpier" than FF
  
• No extension support -but i assume if i use it long enough it'll just accumulate toolbars like ive seen IE7 do
  

[Tripredacus]

I tried this out. I installed it, and it ended up hosing up my explorer where it would crash every now and then. The search feature didn't work at all and I kept getting occache.dll errors in the event viewer. I had to reinstall it and so far I have no errors but we will see how it goes. All this and I haven't even tried to open it yet!

[Mr Snrub]

I tried this out. I installed it, and it ended up hosing up my explorer where it would crash every now and then.

Given that explorer.exe and iexplore.exe share DLLs and addons in either will be loaded in the other, I would guess an extension problem.

I had IE7Pro installed at first and there were quirks with the search box flashing and IE8 crashed once - given that the main features I like of IE7Pro are in IE8, I uninstalled it and had no problems after that.

[Tripredacus]

Yep I am not having any functional problems anymore. The only issue is that it seems to reject any legit security certificate it comes across. For example, the one used by our Trend Micro webinstaller intranet site. Our IE7 clients accept it but IE8 outright rejects it, although it does allow you to proceed. Since its a beta I can forgive it.

The security certificate presented by this website was not issued

by a trusted certificate authority.

Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you

or intercept any data you send to the server.

*We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to

this website. *

[Nerwin]

Wow! I didnt know IE8 Beta 2 is out. I'm going to go download it now sounds like its much more better than IE8 Beta 1.

[lawrencep93]

I just got it it looks nice and there are a few new features which i will have a play with but to b honest I still prefer Firefox.

[Bleeder]

For a corporate environment with primarily Windows XP/Vista PC's, I still can't find anything better than IE. Why? Group Policies. IE8 improves on IE once again in this area. If someone can point me to a centralized administration tool for Firefox that has the degree of configuration that Group Policies for IE allows for, I'm all ears.

[infiniti25]

•IE7s search provider was Google before the install. can you guess what it was after IE8 was installed?

My default provider of Google didn't get changed. I did uninstall IE8 beta 1 and install IE8 beta 2 without opening IE7 inbetween so I guess thats different to your scenario.

I did get the x64 version though.

My main annoyance has to be the status bar behaviour. I love having the status bar on all applications I run I dont have a problem with status bars, but in IE8 beta 2 when I hover over a link, the address flashes quickly in the status bar and is quickly replaced with the word "Done".

This only happens the first time you hover over a link on the currently loaded page, after that it displays all links properly until you refresh or load another page up.

A secondary pain in the neck is some pages appear garbled but if I select with my left mouse button and drag, I see the content sort of refresh/spread out to its proper position.

Is that a rendering bug or something else?

And lol @ porn mode, I haven't had a chance to look but I assume you are referring to the InPrivate browsing feature.

[cluberti]

My main annoyance has to be the status bar behaviour. I love having the status bar on all applications I run I dont have a problem with status bars, but in IE8 beta 2 when I hover over a link, the address flashes quickly in the status bar and is quickly replaced with the word "Done".

This only happens the first time you hover over a link on the currently loaded page, after that it displays all links properly until you refresh or load another page up.

A secondary pain in the neck is some pages appear garbled but if I select with my left mouse button and drag, I see the content sort of refresh/spread out to its proper position.

Is that a rendering bug or something else?

1. It's likely a display bug (race condition between displaying the link and refreshing the status bar). I would suggest filing it on the forums for IE8 though, if you can repro it easily.

2. Yes, it's a render issue - if enabling compat mode for that site fixes it, they're probably sniffing your user agent and giving you an ie-specific page that isn't standards-compliant, which should lead you to send an email to webmaster@<domain> about IE8 compat for that site.

[infiniti25]

I get rendering issues with google searches too, but not every single time.

I search, it gets x amount of results, where x > 10 and it shows the first 3 results and the page selectors at the bottom of my visible window, but if I click and select the text it expands the rest of the results.

Does this mean google need kicking too?

I had a problem in Beta 1 and in Beta 1 IE7 compatability mode where the google cart icons and sometimes the google cart with the maps zoom selectors would appear over the google logo on search results pages.

I guess I will go file the bug(s) shortly, but I was mainly adding to the list of cons so people could confirm with this thread if they were having the issues too.

Edited December 4, 2008 by infiniti25