Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

zeeZee reviewed v8.0 on Jun 24, 2009

excellent workhorse. very stable. uses a little more memory than firefox rc2, but does it matter? get i7 chipset and get 20 gigs of memory.

frankwick reviewed v8.0 on Apr 1, 2009

I'm not sure why people are bashing this browser. I would assume they are the anti-microsoft crowd. Regardless, I am using this browser and am quite pleased. It has some fresh new ideas and some borrowed ideas from FF. From FF it borrowed the bookmark bar and the search bar. Great stuff. The security of this browser seems great also with all the anto-phising tools, the url color coding, etc. More good stuff. I use FF daily also and IE8 is as fast. No, IE8 does not score 100% on ACID 3, but so what -- it renders all websites I visit just fine. I wish there was an integrrrattteed spell checker (like FF) and it needs a couple of other personal UI tweaks, but overall this is a VERY GOOD browser.

wjf152 reviewed v8.0 on Apr 1, 2009

No stars for this rubbish . Ive downloaded three times now and every time it takes minutes to open , never connects to its homepage and takes 5 minutes at least to close the browser . Totally unusable on my PC . 5 stars to Maxthon , no trouble whatsoever .

emanresU deriseD reviewed v8.0 on Mar 31, 2009

I regret updating to this piece of crap. It's slower, and it crashes. MSIE 7 NEVER crashed on me, not that I used it much. This turd runs multiple copies of itself in the background, for reasons unknown to me. I see no improvements that matter to me anywhere. And no matter how I configure it (even using IEPro), new links sometimes overwrite the current tab, and other times do not. It's really annoying to be listening to Pandora.com, only to have the tab overwritten when you thought a new one would open.

filmar51 reviewed v8.0 on Mar 30, 2009

It doesn't works in my PC ! ! !
Processor Intel core i7940, motherboard ASUS P6T Deluxe.
OS Vista 64

ruemere reviewed v8.0 on Mar 21, 2009

Vista Business 64bit here. Internet Explorer 8 works fine... provided it is the only seriously used application in the system. Do not install it if you run another resource intensive application/service (like database, VMware/Virtualbox) - you'll find out soon enough that your 8 GB and quad processor may be not sufficient. It's not like anything breaks, it's just when I attempt to do several things at the same time, it keeps on eating system resources.

And if you think about using it with many pages at the same time (say, 20 or so, as I usually do under Opera), well, just be prepared for decreased system becoming somewhat unresponsive.

Disclaimer: It may be just me. I am also seriously biased against Vista (prettified interfaces, muddled wizards and seriously complicated forms are not to my taste, as the occasional troubleshooting is also much more irritating) - my Windows Xp at home on a much weaker machine and with the same set of applications installed is much better at handling stuff.

Regards,
Ruemere

ailef reviewed v8.0 on Mar 21, 2009

this crap browser totaly failed with vista x64, do not install it on vista 64 , your sidebar will crash all the way.
there's no problem with 32bit version.

mfaccone reviewed v8.0 on Mar 21, 2009

IE8 in itself is ok.. probably more secure. BUT, IE8 and Vista 64bit do not play nice together. It slows opening any window up, it slows opening up Windows Live Mail, it slows opening up any app. I went back to IE7 and everything else sped back up to normal. I use Firefox as my browser.

sn0wflake reviewed v8.0 on Mar 20, 2009

I had the same jaw-dropping experience the first time I saw the Internet Explorer 7 design. How can they keep this unintuitive, huge, ugly design? Still no free adblocking.

tangentlin reviewed v8.0 on Mar 20, 2009

For those who may use OWA (Outlook Web Access), I would caution that IE8 may fail to work properly on Windows Vista. In my case, IE just cannot let me compose email. I have learnt a lesson not to upgrade to the latest if it is from Microsoft, their backward compatibility has been quite poor lately.

smanofsteel76 reviewed v8.0 on Mar 19, 2009

I like IE8, but my biggest beef is how long it takes to open a new tab. Chrome is much faster at this task. Once this is fixed maybe I'll switch. Maybe.

mjm01010101 reviewed v8.0 on Mar 19, 2009

Compatibility mode is turned on by default for all intranet sites, so I tried our portal site (IIS7) and it is broken under compatibility mode but it works under the new IE8 mode. Quite strange, I would expect the opposite. This means I must test every site religiously as I can't trust compatibility mode.

Otherwise the features are nice addition for the plebians forced to use this par browser.

dzjepp reviewed v8.0 on Mar 19, 2009

Not bad

Adrian79 reviewed v8.0 RC1 on Jan 27, 2009

OMG please bring back the old interface!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jspratjr reviewed v8.0 RC1 on Jan 27, 2009

Works fine, no problems here (Vista 32bit).

ZenWarrior reviewed v8.0 RC1 on Jan 26, 2009

Do *NOT* install--or do so at your own peril. I have yet to visit a single web site which works with IE8RC1. I can't even get Flash installed. (No Hulu!) This puppy brought my browsing with a Microsoft product to a screeching halt. (Now where is that uninstall button for IE8--and the start button for *any* other browser?)

dolcesculacciare reviewed v8.0 RC1 on Jan 26, 2009

As a "browser engine" IE (7,8) is just "OK"... as a functional feature rich browser application it's pitiful... Where's the tab management, mouse gestures, and so on that make it efficient, friendly, and customizable ? Maxthon, which uses the IE engine, was pretty good at this until recently...

Fire Fox with a few plug-ins provides a highly customizable application and a stable, safe experience... Use it !!!! MS is doing very little right lately... Vista's a train wreck and Windows 7 doesn't really look much better... certainly no innovation here... My next computer is a MAC !!!

Cris3 reviewed v8.0 RC1 on Jan 26, 2009

I had the beta. This seems to be more stable I actually like it.

DACWILSOL reviewed v8.0 RC1 on Jan 26, 2009

Stable and secure. Have not had any issues with the product. Using Windows Vista Home Premium, Intel Duo Processor with Inten Viiv Tech, 1024 systmem ram. TWC internet 15 mps. So far so good.

crameshcbe reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Oct 17, 2008

Good. Still we expect more from Microsoft.

The IE is reliable.

Teamsterman reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 31, 2008

Is there any way I can uninstall this Beta from my Vista 32bit operating system?

It's really causing me problems.

Thanks for your help.

DACWILSOL reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

Awesome! rethinking the reasons why I stopped using this browser and am now rethinking why I haven't been using this browser. Good job Microsoft! Still reviewing the browser, so far no problems.

kptbc reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

The Vista 64bit link is for beat 1

Cris3 reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

I like it!

periklo reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

I hope every web developer will ignore it and it will eventually vanish from the face of the Earth.

aashay reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

Very impressive! A huge improvement from Beta 1. Like the new design as well. Compatibility view is quite an effective feature.

Paradise-FH- reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

shaj911: "safer than firefox"

lol.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

A huge improvement over Beta 2, I hope this browser which once was great and then became outdated, will once again be great.

David_2005 reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

Such a huge improvement over Beta 1, i really love this browser even more then IE7, i think many people will switch from other browsers to IE8 once it goes final and people really see just how good this browser has become.

AsianAngel reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 28, 2008

Definitely a huge improvement over Beta 1. ^__^ Beta 1 always had problems displaying pictures as nicely as my other browsers due to the "font dpi" setting I have, but now the same pictures look great.

Perhaps there is hope yet for Internet Explorer...

shaj911 reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

This is an execellent browser.
big improvement over ie7 and ie8 beta 1. faster than any ie. safer than firefox
still in beta stages, few bugs but they r minor.
finally microsoft made a good browser

TwinsDad reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

So far I'm quite impressed. Interestingly enough it is a good thing that it includes the compatibility mode as Betanews seems to require it to display.

coover reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

Not all webpages work well with IE8, but a quick, easy, simple click on the "Compatibility" button (next to the refresh button to the right of the address bar) fixes that so you will see the webpage as it would be displayed in IE7. BetaNews is one of the webpages with this problem.

The problem is not within IE8, itself, but lies in faulty code that is used to design the webpage. IE6, IE7, Firefly, Opera, and other browsers, until now, have simply overlooked certain coding problems (which sometimes causes security problems). IE8 requires the coding be correct and either will not display the incorrectly coded webpage, or will cause text or grapics to be overlayed over other text or graphics. Web designers, of course, should be aware of the idiosyncrasies of IE8 by now, and certainly will in the future make the necessary code changes so that "compatibility" will not be even a minor problem.

I probably will not install this beta on my desktop where I will wait for the final version, but I have no problem leaving it on my laptop, where it will be my default browser.

Congratulations to MS for their good work on this browser. Hopefully, the other major browsers will eventually be upgraded so that they are as strict with proper code. It will make browsing the internet safer.

paulm84 reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

thsi shows a lot of promise ...it really does

much faster then ie 7 and the updated UI is a nice change

so far so good

NappyHead reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

Just noticed the exact issue. Maybe Betanews should take this off the site until it works in default mode.

pjb reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

Got a lot of promise. Funny how Betanews page is blank unless in compatibility mode.

The majority of sites that don't currently render correctly are down to bad coding by the web designer. Most seem to have got their act together and coded correctly when IE7 was released. I am sure that the other designers that have sat back for so long will eventually sort their code out.
These days sites should be coded to work correctly in all the main browsers.

Good Job on Microsoft for designing a good browser at last. They have rose to the challenge, now it is left for those remaining web designers to sort their code out!

Zee333 reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

So far so good, i'll edit this review when i use it more

port8001 reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

Just installed this and worked good but after trying to use maxthon on top of it no web pages would load, not sure if microsoft is trying to cripple 3rd party browser shells, although maxthon was the only one I tried before uninstalling.

arossetti reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

Bad link, it's for the XP version. Try: http://www.microsoft.com...ta/worldwide-sites.aspx

PhrostByte reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Aug 27, 2008

Won't install on Vista x86.

paulm84 reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Jun 25, 2008

big improvmeant still needs a lot of work but ti's only beta 1
much faster then IE7

robmanic44 reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Apr 7, 2008

I'm using IE 8 as my regular browser. I haven't experienced any problems and have seen a reduction in system resource use. I'm running Vista Ultimate with NOD32 as my anti-virus.

I've no idea how long I'll continue to use it, but all indications are that the final release will become my default browser.

flake reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 13, 2008

Wow, it seems many reviewers here either haven't actually used this browser, or don't understand what a "developer only" release means. Clearly, this browser is not so good for your joe average user.

Here are the primary reasons why the average person does NOT want to install this:

*The rendering engine is now pretty much fully compliant with most of the latest html/css standards (in stark contrast with any other version of IE!). This is great, but... A majority of sites have incorrect methods of browser detection and feed the same old broken, proprietary, we're-dealing-with-the-fscking-broken-ie html/css that needs to be fed to ie6/7. This kind of code displays in an "interesting" way on IE8, interesting in the sense that it's not as the developer intended and probably not how the user likes. Welcome to the feeling a lot of us get (less and less often :) ) when browsing with Opera, Firefox, Seamonky, etc... :)

*It's a code base that has had many parts that are substantially rewritten. So, it might be kinda unstable (seems stable to me though).

*Umm well, that's about it :)

Now, as for the *intended* audience, this is clearly a great (yet not perfect) piece of software.

*Developer tools applet greatly speeds debugging your xhtml/css. Hello! Finally something to compete with the firefox developer add-ins! Ahh, and you don't even have to go trawling about looking for add-ins :)

*Easily switch to IE7 rendering mode. This is a very good idea, but it requires a restart of the browser, so it's less than totally useful. However, many sites don't have as severe a problem and can be made to wirk on the fly by using the developer tools->view->change compatability mode->[pick one] Gmail and google maps can be fixed in this way. The new yahoo mail is another matter, but that doesn't even work in Opera these days so fsck them ;) Another way to get around the restart to change compatability mode is to simply run two different processes of IE8. Unlike Firefox, IE starts a new process when you click the icon so you can change one of them to be compatible and one to be standards based.

*IE8 is noticeably faster than IE5.x/6/7 when doing general browsing.

*The new web slices and web activities are good ideas and will likely take off as more sites develop them

All in all I can recommend it being very worthwhile to install IE8 beta1 in the following scenarios:

*You use Opera/Firefox/etc... as your primary browser

*You are a web developer primarily using IE and can live with some sites not working as expected.

If you are in the target audience I rate a 4. If you aren't then I would wait a 6mos-year or so and take another look. :)

Adrian79 reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2008

sounds like a buggy mess still..i'll wait til rc3 :)

mancubs reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2008

well down loaded this carbage ,reason i am saying this i am running a daulcore 64 ,amd with 4 gig of ram 380 harddrive top of the ranges graffics card need i say any more also have home ,primiun,vista , yet this ie8 beta dose not want to rec,this data ,what a crop of crap

caramanis reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2008

Not much difference with IE7 except that most sites don't display properly now.

David_2005 reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2008

works flawlessly on Windows Vista Business x86 Service Pack 1

I have Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 installed also so Microsoft's website displayed totally fine, so that persons review stating the site does not load properly is invalid.

the interface has changed a little bit the area in the start bar bit is a little larger then in IE7 but still has the same feel to it.

i've uninstalled IE8 now and will be happy to test the next Beta of IE8 and will be surely using IE8 when it gets released as final edition

EyeofRa reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2008

I realize it is an early beta (beta 1), but...

Well, I installed IE8. Installation was smooth and without any problems and everything looked fine till I tried to view Microsoft's Windows page. Surprise, surprise. IE8 cannot properly display the page! In the matter of fact it does not display it at all. Well, I guess that's enough to stick to Mozilla Firefox (at least for a long while) as it has no problems displaying its manufacturer's website...

@David_2005: The version of Silverlight installed on my computer is 1.0.30109.0. The following site (http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx) is not rendered properly. Screenshots available here: http://horyzonty.org/IE8beta/

Conclusion: it is too early to rate MS IE8 beta 1 more than 1.

mfaccone reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2008

I tried it... wouldn't open unless I started without addons. Kept crashing so I uninstalled.
I didn't really like what I saw though... hopefully through the betas they will change things so it doesn't look a lot like firefox.

jspratjr reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

It's a beta, not a final product. Is it really such a hard concept to grasp?

StormRoBoT reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

it would be much better if it can be minimize in to tryicon at the bottem right..

why hello there reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

So it's slow and buggy, yet people still give it 5-star reviews as if it were perfect or nearly so. I don't understand what makes people be so illogical, but suppose they don't fix these issues. Then what? There will be a slow, buggy product with nothing but 5-star ratings.

Rate what it deserves. Is it really such a hard concept to grasp?

superman2k6 reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

Much improved, well done Microsoft.
It is a bit buggy though i noticed when browsing a few websites it was using a little bit more CPU then it should have but that only happened on a couple of websites. I really love the slightly different interface that this has to Internet Explorer 7.0
i do not recommend using Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 as your standard browser just yet, stick with Internet Explorer 7 for that but do give it a test run i love it maybe you will too.

Zee333 reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

The rendering engine is very, very slow at the moment, but since it is a Beta im going to let it slip. It has some very interesting new features and makes web designers life easier.
I like its "IE7 mode" too.

As with any Beta, there are bugs and IE8 looks like it is going to be a stunning browser, although the GUI is similar to IE7, it has a slight difference that i dont like completely, although i wasn't able to test this completely as it started using high CPU when browsing to BetaNews.

Stick with IE7 for now, but this is sure as hell going to be a mighty browser when the final version is released.

MarcFou reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

There is a noticable difference in page load times. Seems faster than IE7. The new 'Developer' tools are a welcome addition.

Many new buttons are now available to add to the toolbar such as: View source, New window, Save as and many more.

Several new dialogs and windows (redesign). Menus have also been updated to include an image margin (subtle change).

There is an issue with some forms text boxes as far as positioning with the mouse. When you click white space to put the cursor at the end of a sentence, the cursor dosent move. The home & end keys work just fine.

With any beta there are bound to be bugs and issues.

coover reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

Interesting browser, quite fast. But some webmasters will have to make some changes as this browser may not display the page in the same way as IE7 or even Firefly. For an example, go to Craigs List and notice the overlay of the Calendar over the text which is supposed to be to the right of the Calendar. I shall still rank the browser as a 5, because I suspect that the problem is with Craigslist's HTML .... but ?

Diam0nd reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

DatabaseBen: what kind of crap is this?

Looks good so far. I mean, I never really use it, but still.

sdmunoz reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

There's some potential in this one.

DatabaseBen reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

it sounds tempting. however, just remember that your online banking and other sites that require ie7 may not allow you access with this browser.

pjb reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

Got potential. It will be interesting to see as it continues to develop. So far no real issues..

davidtb reviewed v8.0 Beta 1 on Mar 5, 2008

I started out writing this review in Firefox, giving it 3 stars, I was trying to get here with a bookmark that brought over from the upgrade.
It's not too bad,..it's sort of zippy, as lefthanded as 7 but I see potential here.
It still doesn't do emoticons well, this page is still loading while I'm writing this. I'm having issues with this text box but that could be anything.
It's interesting that it won't load My hotmail.