Microsoft has been busy working on updating their Internet Explorer (IE) to version 8. They released it in a small beta environment up until recently where they have now made it available to the general public. This post will cover my experience with the beta.
First the download. Probably the fastest download of IE I have experienced. I remember IE 7 came through Windows Update and it seemed to take awhile to download and begin to install. IE 8 Beta was downloaded and ready to go within minutes. I would say it downloaded at least as fast as Firefox and a little faster then Opera.
Then I installed it. I am running this product on Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition with 4GB of RAM. I will only compare this to other browsers I have running in the same environment- specifically Firefox, Opera and Firefox for 64Bit called Minefield. This will also be subjective- your mileage and results may vary.(Note: Curious about Mozilla Minefield? I will be posting my experience with that soon.) The install was quick and painless as well. Just the standard EULA agree box and boom.
What does annoy me is that by default you cannot run two versions of IE. As soon as I was done installing IE8, IE7 was gone. And uninstalling IE8 looks to be a little difficult since it does not show up in the list as a program I can uninstall. Firefox, Minefield and Opera are all there. I will find specifics out about this later. And it is also in Beta, maybe (although a long shot) that will be fixed when it gets released.
First launch.
First box asks about Suggested Sites. Basically it watches your surfing and suggests sites based on what it sees (this is nutshell definition- see MS for more information). Not a big fan of that stuff, so I turn it off for now. Now asked to accept the default settings or customize. I chose Customize. I keep current search provider “Google”, but you do have the option to choose another provider after setup is complete. I like Google, so Google it will stay.
Next I am asked about “Accelerators”. Interesting, here is what the help file tells us:
- You can use Accelerators with text that you select on a web page to perform such tasks as opening a street address in a mapping website or looking up the dictionary definition for a word. You can also choose the web services or websites that Accelerators use to handle different types of tasks.
I want to see what is available so I choose “Show me a web page after setup has completed…..”
Now asked about SmartScreen Filters. This is the improved Phishing filter. I run something similar as it is available in my other browsers, so I turn it on in IE8 as well. Many details can be found at the IE8 Blog
Now do I want IE8 to be my default browser. No- still pretty happy keeping Firefox that, but thanks for asking. I also leave the box checked at the bottom that says “Import items from other browser when complete”. I do this with Firefox and Opera, let’s see what happens with IE8.
The import sees both Firefox and Opera, but only brings the favorites into IE8- none of my RSS feeds. Oh well. IE is now loaded and ready to run.
IE8 launches and presents three Tabs. “MSN.COM”, “Internet Explorer 8: Service Gallery”-this is where I will choose my Accelerators?-, and “Welcome to Internet Explorer Beta 2″. Right off the bat, does not look that dramatically different from IE7. I do not feel like I have moved to a different browser, which can be a good thing. The IE8 related pages are clean. No windows and lines everywhere. Crisp and refreshing. Off to the Accelerator tab to see my options. Looks like some serious offerings- to be continued..
Leave a Reply