Microsoft have released the next version of IE to the public. They are boasting better performance and security and a number of new features like Private (porn) mode and "Accelerators" which just appears to be a bigger right click context menu. Here's a list of the major features:

Accelerators
Accelerators let you map directions, translate words, email your friends, and more in just a few mouse clicks.

Private Browsing
Browse the web without saving your history with Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Browsing. Now you can shop for that special gift with confidence knowing your family won't accidentally find out or use a shared computer without leaving a trace.

Web Slices
Keep up with changes to the sites you care about most. Add a Web Slice and you won't have to go back to the same website again and again for updates on news, stock quotes, online auctions, weather, or even sports scores.

Search suggestions
Search smarter with detailed suggestions from your favorite search providers and browsing history. See visual previews and get suggested content topics while you type in the enhanced Instant Search Box.

SmartScreen Filter
New security features help to protect you against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise your data, privacy and identity.

promoted/edited forum item

Cool thanks.

"Compatibility mode" sounds interesting too!

edited a bit Ticcles, hope you don't mind

So can a developer force the page into compatibility mode without having the user need to press that button?

edit: yes you can
< meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

last edited by thermite at 13:11:18 20/Mar/09

Apparently, this might be the last true "IE". They may use Webkit like everyone else in the future.

Private Browsing
Browse the web without saving your history with Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Browsing. Now you can shop for that special gift with confidence knowing your family won't accidentally find out or use a shared computer without leaving a trace.

haha, yeah that is what it will mainly get used for... right..

They never said it was a gift for someone else.

exactly what I thought ara lol

The web developer in me just skipped a heartbeat :o Is it on windows update yet?

self-loving mode

Wow, that was sudden.

yeah I pitty the fools who have to go modify code now
..
..
wait a second
..
I'm one of those fools ;(

Just installed and seems to go allright - can notice some speed improvements and also that it's spawning an iexplore.exe process for each tab now, ala Chrome.

hay guyz i think private mode is actually porn mode/?? the op made that joke but i am going to make the joke again LOL

LOLOLOL Private mode? MORE LIKE PORN MO... oh

more like Westpac explorer 8. The only website I use it for. gay f***ing Westpac.

more like Westpac explorer 8.

What you talkin 'bout willis? I use firefox for Westpac's internet banking.

who's willis? i haven't tried firefox lately, maybe they have recoded the site. do you use the business and corporate banking sites?

westpac banking is the biggest piece of s*** ever, home, business and corporate.
Used all 3 and they are all s***.... i cant believe that for one of my accounts if i setup schedule transfer i will have to pay for the transaction but if i do it manually every 2 weeks i dont.... WTF? BTW spoken to westpac about this and they said that how it is?

don't tell me you never watched different strokes infi

PORN MODE

How good would that private browsing be for porn!

that special giftdildo

fpot, your constant angst amuses me. maybe you need someone, or even yourself, to buy you a gift with private mode already.

last edited by ara at 16:35:22 20/Mar/09

By the way, props on editing this post into newsworthiness rather than creating a news post and then making this the disccusion one.

Maybe a bit more effort I guess but better for your users troggles.

I gave him a good starting post! He just tidied it up and made it into a nice package.

yes i did jim so :p

i cant believe that for one of my accounts if i setup schedule transfer i will have to pay for the transaction but if i do it manually every 2 weeks i dont.... WTF? BTW spoken to westpac about this and they said that how it is?

I know it's f***ING BULLs*** YOU SOB. How can you justify that.

OT: I'll take IE8 over FireFox.

I'll take your mum over your dad.

lol @ kos taking the piss out of fpot

Private mode is a must, seriously. If I have to work on one more comp of a user who doesn't know how to clear their f***ing cache...

Ignorence is bliss when it comes to who looks at what kind of pr0n.

Private Browsing
Browse the web without saving your history with Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Browsing. Now you can shop for that special gift with confidence knowing your family won't accidentally find out or use a shared computer without leaving a trace.

Be useful for internet banking I'd say, that & porn but with the great firewall of chinaustralia coming into effect there won't be any porn.

Private mode is a must, seriously. If I have to work on one more comp of a user who doesn't know how to clear their f***ing cache...

Ignorence is bliss when it comes to who looks at what kind of pr0n.

Here's an idea, don't go snooping through peoples browser cache?

Here's an idea, don't go snooping through peoples browser cache?

Srsly!@? When I was at WebC we had all sorts of open access to the PowerUp web cache, new server and the FTP bot .. there were so many goodies in there it was hard to believe.

Here's an idea, don't go snooping through peoples browser cache?

Nah, it's not that simple mate. You go to use Google and it comes up with what they've searched. Or you go to type in a URL directly and something shows up that you don't want to know.

It's amazing how little clue some people have about browsers.

Nah, it's not that simple mate. You go to use Google and it comes up with what they've searched. Or you go to type in a URL directly and something shows up that you don't want to know.

So true... We once discovered a new employees direct url input history on his laptop when he was sick one day and we needed to use it for something, by typing something starting with 'g', and a few gay porn (starting with g, obviously) sites came up in his history. Nothing against that if you're that way inclined, just not something either of us really wanted to see at work.

jeez, harden the hell up. It's people like you who want this internet filter because your fragile minds are easily broken.

On a less troll-esque note, wasn't IE 7 supposedly the last version MS would make available to XP after which they'd make you use vista? Or was that windows media player?

Microsoft switching to Webkit? Wow, I don't know how Steve Ballmer could stand for that; a project that Apple open-sourced in 2005, after starting off as a fork of KHTML.

http://log.valhallaisland.com/post/88046668

Surely Microsoft are ashamed of Internet Explorer. It’s getting whipped by browsers with 1/100th of Microsoft’s resources. It’s not getting beaten the way OS X beats Windows either, browser performance can be measured by real, tangible tests and IE8 comes last every time. It’s got to be embarrassing when the only people who use your software are either forced or ignorant.

Anyone else running 64bit vista and now cant load Youtube vids with IE8?

I'm not anymore but I recall there being no flash player available for the 64bit version of IE, use the 32bit version instead.

Anyone else running 64bit vista and now cant load Youtube vids with IE8?

Don't run 64bit IE. Adobe, for reasons nobody knows, haven't bothered making a 64bit version of Flash, thus making 64bit browsers somewhat useless. Run 32bit IE.

ive finally given up on chrome, due to the 2 second youtube issue (if i get a few youtubes on a page, or just after some set time, youtubes will only play to the 2 second mark and pause, its the same reason i gave up on ff) and then chrome stopped downloading files completely

ill go queue up 5 torrents, 2 will download, the other 3 will sit there permanently downloadin for ever;

ie has always played youtubes and downloaded my files, so i thought id give ie8 a go;

god dman, it feels like im surfing the web in slow motion;

are there any tweaks for speeding it up?

Not that I know of, you should try out Chrome though - Google's next generation awesome browser.

FWIW: I have those same f***ing problems and it pisses me off, now I'm stuck with using IE for my linux ISOs and Youtube and then swapping to Chrome for everything else.