Standards
Windows Internet Explorer 8 contains a new rendering and layout engine that fully implements CSS 2.1 and includes additional HTML 4.0 compliance (unlike previous versions of Windows Internet Explorer). The broader support of web standards in Internet Explorer 8 might cause some web applications to operate imcorrectly because they are not written for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or in a non-standards-compliant manner. Applications can fail in different ways, including images or text that are displayed in different locations or entire applications that render in a way that makes the application unusable.
Internet Explorer 8 also includes an improved JavaScript engine. This new scripting engine improves performance, supports new methods natively, provides increased security, and changes some functions to operate in a more standards-compliant way. The enhanced performance does not introduce application compatibility issues, but other changes can cause some web applications to stop functioning as expected. For more information about compatibility issues that are related to JavaScript changes, see Site Compatibility and Internet Explorer 8.
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