Ask DLS: What do you think of Internet Explorer 8 beta 1?

by Brad Linder Mar 5th 2008

As expected, Microsoft has released the first public beta version of Internet Explorer 8. While IE8 superficially look a lot like Internet Explorer 7, it sports a bunch of new features including a redesigned favorites bar, automatic crash recovery, a new "WebSlices" feature that lets you subscribe to content within a web page much the way you would with an RSS feed, and some rendering engine changes.

But make no mistake, this is clearly beta software. IE8 beta 1 is not compatible with pre-release versions of Windows Vista SP1, doesn't work with a ton of IE7 add-ons like Skype, Google, and Yahoo! toolbars, and appears to enjoy making abstract paintings out of some web sites as you can see in the image above.

We know many Download Squad readers have been testing IE8 beta 1 out since the download links went live at about 3PM EST today, so what have your experiences been like? What works? What doesn't? What do you like? What needs improvement? And is Internet Explorer 8 likely to convince you to switch from Firefox, Opera, or whatever web browser you currently use?

Sound off in the comments.

Tags: ie8, internet-explorer, internet-explorer-8, internet-explorer-8-beta-1, web-browsers

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

RazorD said 4:51PM on 3-05-2008

Well, it completely breaks my dissertation project.. So i quickly uninstalled it and shall pretend its never been tested on it - That way i don't need to fix it! ;)

Saurabh Agarwal said 4:53PM on 3-05-2008

installed it...tried to open.. kept throwing a Memory Exception error, despite restarts... couldn't be bothered to reinstall it and went back to IE7....i guess i'll be waiting until Beta 2? or RC 1...

Jason said 4:55PM on 3-05-2008

so far no problems here and I must say it seems much more crisp and snappy (had a blt for lunch) then 7

Todd said 5:04PM on 3-05-2008

Long answer: It wouldn't install. Tried twice. Install screen hung on "checking for malicious software". Forced to Ctrl+Alt_Del and use Task Manager to kill off installer.

Short answer: EPIC FAIL!

CoffeeDaze said 5:06PM on 3-05-2008

It is obvious this is a beta release within seconds of using. Many pages are rendered with a Picasso touch. That being said, the new favorites bar, slightly better tab support, and WebSlices are nice touches. I can almost guarantee it won't have too many Firefox users switching back but any improvement in the IE experience is greatly welcomed.

Sirgen said 5:13PM on 3-05-2008

I don't like beta software, I'll wait for the official release.

Jack said 6:07PM on 3-05-2008

IE8 doesn't render anything correctly. I looked at the Acid2 test, and that renders wrong, Google Reader is totally screwed up. Heck, even Windows Live Mail doesn't render right. I know it's just a beta, but they should have fixed these kinks. Firefox did.

Derek Reiff said 6:11PM on 3-05-2008

Wow. Talk about beta software--though I've never had beta software behave this badly.

Firing it up the first time proved that the default ADDON page didn't render correctly. Went to google reader, poof. Bad render.

website after website rendered incorrectly..except google. Slow as **** and blah blah blah. beta beta beta.
That is all. I'll leave it installed and take the updates as they come though.. Firefox still has it.

Alex M said 6:15PM on 3-05-2008

I have 17 Firefox extensions, of which I consider at least 3 to be indispensable and another 3 very nice to have (the rest are simply nice to have). I am very glad IE8 is showing promise, but I'm not going anywhere.

Mysterius said 6:16PM on 3-05-2008

While rendering is hit-or-miss, the browser itself feels improved. It does seem faster than IE7, too, both in startup and in browsing. I agree with CoffeeDaze that this won't switch many alternative browser users over (unless they had Firefox nstalled for them, and buy a new computer with IE8 preinstalled), but I also agree that it's a welcome improvement. At the least, it should provide some motivation to Firefox and Opera to continue innovation.

@Download Squad: Why do you say the Google toolbar doesn't work? It seems to work on my installation. I already had Google toolbar installed, of course, so I don't know if a new install would be different, but everything seemed to migrate fine.

freaktech said 6:17PM on 3-05-2008

Installed everything works fine except for iGoogle. Preview drop downs and minimize buttons do not work. Other then that works fine.

Brad Linder said 6:21PM on 3-05-2008

Mysterious: Actually, MS says Google Toolbar doesn't work. We just assumed they knew what they were talking about. Glad to know they were wrong for once.

cubswillwinit said 6:23PM on 3-05-2008

EPIC FAIL. The thing doesn't display web pages properly and is slow and worse than IE7. I'm still using firefox 3 beta 3, and I'm not leaving that for sure. Trusty opera also blows this outta the water. I'm very sad for MS. Even ashamed.

CUBSWILLWIN said 6:30PM on 3-05-2008

It's suckish, slow, doesn't display webpages properly like you said and WORSE than IE7. Don't like the fact about restarting your rig for installing it completely. I'm beta testing frefox 3 beta 3 and it slaughters this. Even my trusty Opera browser blows this out of the water.

mkwiecie said 7:20PM on 3-05-2008

ACID2 = FAIL

That is all.

Brian said 8:12PM on 3-05-2008

I find it interesting how some people are able to go to the acid tests and pass them, yet when I do it, I see it obviously does not pass. WTF Microsoft?

David Martin said 8:26PM on 3-05-2008

I haven't had a single problem after I manually restarted the computer, but maybe I am the lucky one, or maybe my install was faulty and the bad code was missing. The only thing I dislike is all the superficial links to hotmail, windows media ect...

Kevin McCarthy said 8:57PM on 3-05-2008

Had np installing. I already had silverlight and had ie7pro and see no improvement over ie7 if any thing seems to be like all microsoft new programs needs lots of ram

hn333 said 10:16PM on 3-05-2008

Installed it, no problem. It even passed the official Acid2 test page. Nice.

Matt S. said 1:19AM on 3-06-2008

Oh and I installed it in a few clicks on a final sp1 vista machine. It went fine. No trouble and rendered the Acid2 test 100%.

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