Comments on: Hands-on with IE 8: A giant step for Microsoft

Internet Explorer 8 takes another large leap forward for the world's most-used browser, but is it enough to make devoted Firefox, Chrome, and Safari fans switch?

[rlzimmerman]

I installed 64-bit IE8 last night on Vista Ultimate 64-bit. Upon completion, I couldn't right-click on the Recycle Bin or shortcuts on the Quick Launch bar without causing Explorer to hang. Luckily uninstalling it took care of it. What started as simple anticipation ended in frustrated irritation.

[whozzit]

I had more or less the same problem a couple of weeks ago. It sounds like "Crime & Punishment" but I uninstalled Vista Ultimate 64 Bit and reinstalled Vista Ultimate 32 Bit. That took care of all the problems. There isn't any difference in speed between the 32 bit and the 64 bit OS so, if I were you, I think that I'd stay with the 32 bit version.

[Coonie1]

I tried to use IE8, but it keeps switching off my phishing protection in Norton Internet Security. I thought they would of fixed this before the final release. Oh well, all in all, Firefox is still the best. :)

[whozzit]

I would get rid of Norton Internet Security (completely) and go with the free version of Avast. Your machine will go twice as fast and you won't have that problem any longer.

[eli77057]

When I downloaded IE8 beta, it ran so slowly that I nearly died of boredom trying to load anything.
When I downloaded the finished product, it was an improvement - I DID DIE of boredom waiting for anything to happen.
Back to IE7. IE8, despite the hullabaloo by CNET isn't ready for humanity

[lucifer1891]

i downloaded it and its crap it keeps saying internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close so i downloaded google chrome and have no problems with that

Installed IE8 on Vista x86 and, after few minutes, uninstalled it.
It has a lot of crap options for geeks and crazy people (wikipedia, facebook, delicius and so on) but seems that MS developers forget that a tabbing browser must remember all old tabs.
Luckely on W7 we can uninstall it: FF, Opera and SRWare Iron (*) are better then it. Much better.
(*) it's a Chrome clone without privacy thieving by Google.

[whozzit]

I don't know about the rest of you but I've been at this since '92 or '93 and the first thing that I do to any of my machines or any customer's machine is to "Google-Proof" it. Anything Google is like a gar fish. Don't bring it around here...

[M_C_K]

There is so much talk about all this nitty littly fancy things, but I don't understand why basic security usability is still so cumbersome. ActiceX controls are still one of the biggest weak points. If you turn them off completely you can't surf many pages because of the overuse of Flash and of course you still want to watch a video on YouTube. So you can set the settings to prompt, but even IE8 still tells you only do you want to allow the ActiveX control. Why is it not able to tell me what control it is? e.g. do you want to allow Flash or Windows Update control to load, ...
I further would like to activate or deactivate ActiveX controls, JavaScript, Cookies, etc. per page or website through the click of a button, instead of going into deep menu structures. That's not practical. Wouldn't it be great if a toolbar would show me the slected settings and I would be able to change them with a click of a mouse for a page?

Marcus

[Johntycn]

I tried the pre release version aand it would not work properly in Vista.

[whozzit]

I've got IE8 running fine in both Vista Ultimate and Vista Home Premium (both 32 bit systems).

[franasia]

A giant step for Microsoft?

All they do is copy ... as usual. Never innovation.
Not a chance with me. I'm busy with the other nice browsers.

Cheers

[robocoprobert]

I've downloaded all the updated browsers and noticed that IE is the only browser that prevents Gmail from loading. Is this on purpose? Makes me wonder as I've used several versions of IE in my laptop and desktop and Gmail won't load in IE.

[dadsgravy]

Another fine Cinco product.

[dennisl59]

Overengineered Mess. 90% of people will use 10% of the "features", if they can master them.

Thank you Beta Testers and Focus Groups for nothing, as usual.

In my opinion.

[jc364]

Microsoft should be commended for its efforts in IE8. The browser has come far in regard to standards, and that is great for developers and end users.

IE8 is actually opening the door for people to use whatever browser they want. By complying with standards, it is easier for developers to write pages that work in multiple browsers. People can say what they want about MS being a monopoly, but in this case, MS is actually doing good.

Also, I hear that MS is adding the option to uninstall IE for Windows 7. So, if you don't like IE, don't worry, you won't even have to have it on your machine at some point.

[JonathanPDX]

"I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant named Microsoft! Oh, never mind. It was just gas."

It's one thing to be innovative, but they are too big and too bloated to really be cutting edge.

Let's hope they at least fixed the problems with version 7 without introducing a myriad of others.

[D_E_A_T_H_999]

Well they do have some problems, but not many. I am probably the weirdest person for saying this, but since I actually went through and tested all the features and everything because of boredom, it isn't half bad, but Google is my favorite.

[eesterbauer]

Firstly Konrad, MS is not a monopoly. Monopolies only come about by government regulation giving special treatment to on group of producers. MS became large because its products were popular and people wanted them and the competition failed to produce a product that people wanted. Note the poor quality and set up of the Mac with there numerous clkiucks to achieve simple processes. No wonder it couldn't compete! Mac crap. And I don't see Mac the Crap helping the fight against malaria either.
I tried the Beta IE and found it too slow. I will try the new version to see how it goes.

[whozzit]

MS kind of had it made back when computers were younger. They came pre-installed on every machine and saturated computer-land. After all... Who was going to buy a computer with nothing on it? I've been at this since late '92 and, happily, I've discovered places to buy new machines without an operating system installed on them and that is the way to go. Still, I usually end up installing something from MS on them but not all the time. New machines cost a lot less without an OS on them and, as a computer builder, I can buy and install the OS that's called for. Or uninstall it and install something else. It's the "empty computer syndrome!"

[pmishler]

There is at least one major problem with IE8, and that is it will not install on a 64 bit system.

[vprods]

My co worker and I both took the plunge today and installed IE8. After the install, neither of us could connect to the network at all. Not just the internet but the entire network. Luckily I was able to uninstall and system restore and get connected again. My coworker was not so lucky and is probably looking at a reinstall. By the way, we are network techs so I don't think lack of knowledge is the issue.

[whozzit]

Uh-oh... This is not good. I have a wireless ISP (Digitalpath) and anything that i connect to my router (or hub) is pretty much online without doing anything at all. I'd wander around in Contol Panel and have a look at Network Connections.

[MafiaPenguin]

Well, I must say, it IS a pleasant surprise.

It said I needed reboot, so I did, and when I logged in, it (reg.exe) said it couldn't find the settings. Then I rebooted several times and it finally finished, and now when I click on the button in my start menu, it shows itself opening, then it closes. I can still use IETab for Firefox, so I am a-OK with how this is working.

[MafiaPenguin]

Never mind, it's because I DLed it from Firefox, so it hung on reboot. Finally the 3rd time I tried a reinstall (still from Firefox) when I rebooted, it said that "Do you want to run this file?" because it wasn't from IE. Ok, so I clicked yes. After a long, torturous install that took a while my computer restarted- again- and I was able to use my computer. I, needless to say, still use Firefox and Chrome. I'd rather use Mozilla Suite. I know where to get it from Mozilla.org.

[chaztonkin]

I downloaded IE 8 and i hate it. I use firefox because at least you don't have to worry about the browser crashing. Internet explorer is garbage as far as i am concerned.

[D_E_A_T_H_999]

Hey, it isn't garbage. It actually runs smoother, it is just missing some stuff.

[whozzit]

And where is all of this "crashing" stuff coming from? The last time I crashed was probably with WIN98 SE. And this house has two desktops and a laptop running pretty much 24/7. Vista Ultimate, XP Professional and Vista Home Premium. This crashing stuff sounds like older, slower, smaller computers.

[D_E_A_T_H_999]

All in all, yes, I agree with you. This is a huge leap forward for Microsoft.

[D_E_A_T_H_999]

Oh and I am running a dinosaur of a computer and Google, for me, works the best.