Features
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License:
Free
- Editor's Rating:
- Average User Rating:
-
Downloads:
11,606,298
- Operating Systems:
Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Additional Requirements:
No additional requirements
- Limitations:
No limitations
- Date Added:
March 19, 2009
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Previous Versions:
Publisher's description of Internet Explorer
From Microsoft:Internet Explorer 8 adds accelerators to provide instant access to information like maps, web searches, translations, email, blogging, and more; faster performance; a smart address bar; improved privacy protection; and Compatibility View for displaying websites designed for older browsers.
CNET Editor's Note: The Download Now link will take you to the Microsoft download site, where you can select your operating system.
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Editor's review of Internet Explorer
stars
- "More secure, interestingly innovative"
- Reviewed on: March 19, 2009
- Version reviewed: Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8 addresses just about all of the major concerns that users and critics have had with the world's most used browser. Whether they get answered in a way you like is another matter.
There are several new and interesting features. Web Slices lets you save predefined sections of a Web page for at-a-glance viewing. Instead of going to a traffic Web site for updates, the latest commuting news comes to you. Similarly, Accelerators make repetitive tasks one-click behaviors, for instance finding directions or blogging. InPrivate browsing introduces a cache and history on-off switch, while related tabs are color-coded and automatically reorganized as you open them. There's also tab sandboxing, which means that when a tab crashes, IE itself won't, and it even tries to resurrect the page that crashed.
There's a greater emphasis on Web standards and security than before. The SmartScreen and cross-site scripting filters throw up a red warning page when you're about to visit an unsafe site. There's also domain highlighting, which grays out the name of the URL you're looking at except for the domain itself. This sounds simple, but effectively draws attention to spoofed site URLs. There's also a compatibility button so that sites designed specifically for IE 7 and earlier can still be viewed.
IE 8 lacks a default "smart" location bar that many other browsers have, but you can search your history and most visited pages from there. Also, the installation process still requires a reboot--unimpressive, to say the least. Drawbacks aside, there's no reason to not upgrade if you're an old fan of IE, and there's even a few things in IE 8 for new users.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 1331 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 235 user reviewsSee all 235 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Internet Explorer 8
Pros: Non-available
Cons: Couldn't access some sites, the history of the sites visited is not extensive anymore on the address bar, hang/lag my computer
Summary: Not user friendly for the list of history which previous pages visited from the address bar, couldn't access to some sites like youtube or fanfiction.net (no idea how to resolve the problem) and hang/lag my computer. Read some solutions, it said som... read more >>
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Version: Internet Explorer 8
Pros: Speed IE8 considerably exceeds speed of previous versions IE.
Cons: Long installation time (but it only once!)
Summary: I used IE 8 with Windovs Vista and now with Windows 7. Result magnificent! Speed IE8 can compete only with Safari.
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Version: Internet Explorer 8
"Compared to Firefox this Internet Explorer 8 is SUPER!"
Pros: Fast
New and Useful FeaturesCons: Ugly Interface
Summary: The NEWLY updated Firefox is slow as Molasses. This NEWLY updated Internet Explorer is EXTREMELY fast.
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Version: Internet Explorer 8
Pros: It let's you view web pages faster.
Cons: Crashes a lot. RAM heavy. Poor security.
Summary: When you browse, it almost always feels like it's gonna break down any time soon. It's not as customizable as most other browsers. It's big on RAM and though it renders pages fast, the software itself is a drag...
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Version: Internet Explorer 8
Pros: inprivate browsing,fast, simple,safe.
Cons: tabs take 2secs to pop out.
- See all 235 user reviews Write review
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