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IE8 Beta 2 Update

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So I have now been able to install Beta 2 on my machine and I just wanted to give my thoughts on it so far.

Installation

This was a little bit of a problem for me and the Beta 2 package didn’t uninstall Beta 1 automatically for me on my Vista x64 machine.  It told me to uninstall the previous version and that restart the install.  So when I went to “Program and Features”, Internet Explorer wasn’t listed in any way there.  There was also no uninstall on the start menu.

I did however find it.  It was located under the “View installed updates” choice on the left side of the Programs and Features window.  After I uninstalled that and rebooted, Beta 2 installed just fine.

Usage

I love the new changes to IE.  I didn’t think there was that much new to be added to a web browser, but I think everything I have seen so far makes sense and is very useful.  The WebSlices have been mentioned here before and I think they fill and great need especially around getting updates on things like auctions.

The Accelerators are also very cool.  Allowing you to look up words, find an address on a map, and many other things very easily.  I think there will be a lot of great additional Accelerators created and we will see the web expand in a totally new way.

The other two new things that I like a lot are the Suggested Sites feature and the auto-complete additions.  The Suggested Sites feature is really cool in that it will give you other sites around the web that are like the site you are currently on.  I think it has a lot of possibility for really enabling you to find other information along a specific topic.  The auto-complete features are very useful when you are typing in a URL and maybe aren’t sure about the exact path.

As with any new product updates, I think these things are best to be tried out for yourself.  Feel free to post your comments here as I’d like to hear what others think.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 28, 2008
    PingBack from http://informationsfunnywallpaper.cn/?p=2895

  • Anonymous
    August 28, 2008
    Hi Tom, Regarding some of the installation issues you experienced - it may be worth pointing out to your readers the IE Blog post that discusses what it takes to get IE8b2 installed - "Upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2" @ http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/08/27/upgrading-to-internet-explorer-8-beta-2.aspx.

  • Anonymous
    August 28, 2008
    Molotov, Very good point.  Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    August 29, 2008
    When will it be going into beta 3 version

  • Anonymous
    August 29, 2008
    I don't like how switching to IE7 mode makes you have to close and re-open the browser.   They need to make it so that you can run one tab in IE7 mode and one tab in IE8 mode.   That way you can still view sites that do not look good in IE8 (which are many)

  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2008
    Hopefully, IE8 will be better than IE7. IE7 sometimes crashed giving the Don't send, send error. But, im waiting for the final version to install it on my machine.

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2008
    Built-in 'View Source' feature became worse. Syntax colorization is definitely nice but I can't use arrow keys to select a piece of text, I can't use Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down, I'm force to use mouse even to make something simple. It's very inconvenient. Notepad was much better.

  • Anonymous
    September 03, 2008
    I like the changes in IE 8 it is easier to use and faster. The session restore is a marked improvement. Thank you to all who have workd so hard you have a good product here keep up the good work.