Internet Explorer 8: screenshot gallery
Installing Internet Explorer 8.
Microsoft's new browser is available for Vista, XP and Windows Server 2008.
Setup only takes a few minutes.
Following a reboot...
...the Internet Explorer 8 interface is broadly similar to its predecessor's.
The browser highlights the domain name in bold, which should help users to identify phishing sites.
The Favorites Bar is now shown by default. Simply click the button to add new favourites.
Web Slices are a new feature. These are areas of a site — in this case an auction — on which the user wishes to be kept updated.
The Web Slice for the eBay auction sits in the Favorites bar, where its progress can be viewed without the need to visit the eBay site. However, web site operators need to modify their sites to support this feature.
Thumbnails of open tabs were already available in Internet Explorer 7, but the preview in IE8 is now more efficient.
You can switch between search providers at the touch of a button.
Visual Search displays the search results with pictures. However, this feature needs support from web site operators.
The 'Find on this Page' feature has also been revised.
A series of related tabs can be opened as a colour-coded Tab Group in IE8.
A Tab Group can be closed completely, or just individual tabs.
You can also reopen recently closed tabs in IE8.
Highlighted text can be passed to an Accelerator for processing.
When you open a blank new tab, you're offered a list of recently closed tabs to reopen.
You can also use text stored on the clipboard to open a web page via an Accelerator.
InPrivate Browsing mode ensures that the browser retains no record of your surfing session.
The Address bar in IE8 offers not only AutoComplete suggestions, but also results from History, Favorites and Feeds.
Web sites optimised for previous versions of Internet Explorer may not be rendered correctly in IE8.
Internet Explorer 8 therefore offers a Compatibility View that reverts to the IE7 rendering engine.
After a reload, the site is displayed correctly using the IE7 rendering engine.
Administration of add-ons and other extenstions has been revised. For each element, the expected load time is indicated.