- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows XP/2003/Vista
- Date added: March 19, 2009
- Total Downloads: 12,867,619
- Downloads last week: 52,845
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 1450 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on March 19, 2009
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.
Publisher's description
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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User reviews
- Average user rating: 2.4 stars out of 1450 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 353 user reviewsSee all 353 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Internet Explorer 8
Pros: Pros? Hopefully IE9.
Cons: By Microsoft. lol
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Version: Internet Explorer 8
"Complete failure but it can still access the Internet"
Pros: Nothing at all!
Cons: Unlike Firefox it has no Ad Blocker, and I never use it other then to run windows updates.
Summary: This is why I only use Firefox. It has No Ad Blocker..
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Internet Explorer 8
"Should be IE -8 (minus 8 - it lacks!)"
Pros: Nothing at all!
Cons: Useless tools and features!
Summary: IE8 has so many useless features that interfer with routine mantenance - and websearching that it is a time consumer not a saver.
Some of them are annoying and there doesn't seem to be anyway to turm nuscence features off!!
Thought I'd l... read more >> -
Version: Internet Explorer 8
"THE WORST BROWSER MICROSOFT HAS EVER CREATED."
Pros: Windows 7 version of IE 8 I can't think of any Pros
Cons: Way too overly secure,it refuses to open up any links that I click on within the browser,not even a new tab or new window. Lowering all of the security levels didn't work at all either however Windows 7 works ok.
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Version: Internet Explorer 8
"memory hog, poor gui and Vista like security problems"
Pros: not a complete failure, can still access the Internet
Cons: Each tab creates a new OS process including additional memory and CPU overhead
Not Not Not recommended for XP
GUI treats theser like a moronSummary: There is no user improvement for additional processing cost and Vista like security
- See all 353 user reviews Write review
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