Windows Internet Explorer 8 - The web at your service
IE8, web browser, web, internet explorer, accelerators, web slices, security
Product Category: Software
Internet Explorer 8 is our safest, fastest, easiest browser yet, and packed with great new features like WebSlices, Accelerators as well as extensive security mechanisms to keep your family safe online. Learn more:
Internet Explorer 8 takes the web experience beyond the page and introduces a new way to seamlessly experience the best of the web, whether you are a web developer writing to standards or an end-user discovering a new online service integrated into the browser – all with the peace of mind that you are using the safest, most compatible and reliable browser.
We’ve also taken steps to deliver the fastest version of Internet Explorer available, making it easy to launch quickly, find what you want efficiently and navigate seamlessly.
With top priority given to Web standards and interoperability, web developers and designers can drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. This commitment also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases.
Here are some end-user features you that are new to Internet Explorer 8.
Internet Explorer 7 introduced the Phishing Filter, a feature which helps warn users when they visit a phishing site. Phishing sites spoof a trusted legitimate site, with the goal of stealing the user’s personal or financial information. For Internet Explorer 8, we are building on the success of the Phishing Filter with a more comprehensive feature called the "Safety Filter".
For IT administrators, new Group Policy options are available to remove the user-override option and fully block access to known unsafe sites.
Accelerators are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another but Internet Explorer 8 Accelerators make this common pattern easier to do.
Accelerators typically involve two types of scenarios: "look up" information within a webpage or "send" web content to a web application. For example, a user is interested in a restaurant and wants to see the location of it. This is the form of a "look up" Accelerator where the user selects the address and views an in-place view of the map using his favorite map service.
An example of a "send" Accelerators is a user reads an interesting article and wants to blog about a portion of the article. The user can select a portion of the article and uses the blog Accelerators. This navigates to the user’s blog site with the selection already available in the edit field.
Accelerators are services that the user can install and manage. Users can install them from the Internet Explorer 8 Addons Gallery or through any website that advertises Activities.
WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.
Internet Explorer 8 Users can discover WebSlices within a webpage and add them to the Favorites bar, a dedicated row below the Address bar for easy access to links. Internet Explorer 8 subscribes to the webpage, detects changes in the WebSlice, and notifies the user of updates. Users can preview these updates directly from the Favorites bar and click-through to the website to get more information.
In Internet Explorer 7, the Links bar provided users with one-click access to their favorite sites. The Links bar has undergone a complete makeover for Internet Explorer 8. It has been renamed the Favorites bar to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
A user can easily add a link to the Favorites bar by using the Add to Favorites button and selecting the Add to Favorites Bar option.
Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) is a feature of Internet Explorer 8 that can help to prevent the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of the browser crashing or hanging. The ACR feature takes advantage of the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities, such as tab recovery, which will minimize interruptions to users’ browsing sessions.
See Automatic Crash Recovery white paper for more information.
Download Internet Explorer 8 from the NZ Windows site.
We’ve also taken steps to deliver the fastest version of Internet Explorer available, making it easy to launch quickly, find what you want efficiently and navigate seamlessly.
With top priority given to Web standards and interoperability, web developers and designers can drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. This commitment also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases.
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New features
Here are some end-user features you that are new to Internet Explorer 8.
Improved Phishing Filter
Internet Explorer 7 introduced the Phishing Filter, a feature which helps warn users when they visit a phishing site. Phishing sites spoof a trusted legitimate site, with the goal of stealing the user’s personal or financial information. For Internet Explorer 8, we are building on the success of the Phishing Filter with a more comprehensive feature called the "Safety Filter".
For IT administrators, new Group Policy options are available to remove the user-override option and fully block access to known unsafe sites.
Accelerators
Accelerators are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another but Internet Explorer 8 Accelerators make this common pattern easier to do.
Accelerators typically involve two types of scenarios: "look up" information within a webpage or "send" web content to a web application. For example, a user is interested in a restaurant and wants to see the location of it. This is the form of a "look up" Accelerator where the user selects the address and views an in-place view of the map using his favorite map service.
An example of a "send" Accelerators is a user reads an interesting article and wants to blog about a portion of the article. The user can select a portion of the article and uses the blog Accelerators. This navigates to the user’s blog site with the selection already available in the edit field.
Accelerators are services that the user can install and manage. Users can install them from the Internet Explorer 8 Addons Gallery or through any website that advertises Activities.
WebSlices
WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.
Internet Explorer 8 Users can discover WebSlices within a webpage and add them to the Favorites bar, a dedicated row below the Address bar for easy access to links. Internet Explorer 8 subscribes to the webpage, detects changes in the WebSlice, and notifies the user of updates. Users can preview these updates directly from the Favorites bar and click-through to the website to get more information.
Favourites Bar
In Internet Explorer 7, the Links bar provided users with one-click access to their favorite sites. The Links bar has undergone a complete makeover for Internet Explorer 8. It has been renamed the Favorites bar to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
A user can easily add a link to the Favorites bar by using the Add to Favorites button and selecting the Add to Favorites Bar option.
Automatic Crash Recovery
Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) is a feature of Internet Explorer 8 that can help to prevent the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of the browser crashing or hanging. The ACR feature takes advantage of the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities, such as tab recovery, which will minimize interruptions to users’ browsing sessions.
See Automatic Crash Recovery white paper for more information.
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Internet Explorer 8 Resources
- Internet Explorer 8 developer white papers
- Hands-on labs for new features
- Internet Explorer VPCs
- Partner homepage
- What’s new in Internet Explorer 8 for developers?
- Article on Internet Explorer 8 Site Compatibility
- IE8 official Windows site
- IE Team Blog
- Enterprise FAQ
- Technology Overview
- Internet Explorer Developer Centre
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Get it now!
Download Internet Explorer 8 from the NZ Windows site.
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