Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 will ship in standards mode by default. However, users can set three different rendering modes using the X-UA-Compatible header:
Quirks mode which supports Internet Explorer 5 and legacy browsers
Strict mode which supports Internet Explorer 7 and is accessed through the emulate IE 7 button
Internet Explorer 8 standards mode
The Internet Explorer 8 layout engine is built to be cascading style sheets 2.1 compliant, enabling web developers and designers to write their pages once and have them render properly across all cascading style sheets 2.1 compatible browsers. However, Microsoft is not finished—hence, Microsoft is seeking feedback from developers working with Internet Explorer 8 Developer Beta 1.
Many cross-browser inconsistencies have been fixed in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, including:
Separate URL handing for attributes.
The get/set/remove attribute implementations are now compatible with those of other browsers.
Default attributes for HTML are supported so that they always exist on elements whether specified in the markup or not.
Internet Explorer 8 simplifies the use of standards-compliant XML-based webpages that support namespace features like scalable vector graphics, XML user interface language, mathematical markup language, and others.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 improves performance in many Internet Explorer subsystems, such as the HTML parser, cascading style sheets rule processing, markup tree manipulation, the JScript parser, garbage collector runtime, and memory management. More performance work is planned for later beta releases.
Microsoft has heard your feedback that Internet Explorer needs its own built-in Developer Tools, so the new Developer Toolbar enables developers to quickly debug HTML, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript in a visual development environment that is included with the web browser. Developers can quickly identify and resolve issues because of the deep insight the tool provides into the Document Object Model. The Developer Toolbar also allows the layout to be changed on the fly so that each rendering scenario can be tested thoroughly.
Internet Explorer 8 includes a more standards-compatible layout engine by default, which allows developers to build a single standards compatible website for multiple browsers. Internet Explorer 8 Developer Beta uses the Internet Explorer 8 standard mode layout engine by default. However, by clicking on the emulate Internet Explorer 7 button, users can choose when they use the strict mode, which supports the Internet Explorer 7 compatible layout engine to retain compatibility with existing sites.
Internet Explorer 8 has been designed on Microsoft security and privacy investments. Internet Explorer 8 delivers an end-to-end approach to protection with security features that focus on three major areas:
For more information, please review the Developers Readiness ToolKit.
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Internet Explorer 8 allows users to confidently bank, communicate, and shop online with these capabilities: Enhanced protection from deceptive websites: As part of an ongoing commitment to privacy and security, Microsoft is making enhancements to the phishing filter in Internet Explorer 8 to provide additional protection against evolving threats to the consumer. With the Safety Filter, Internet Explorer 8 will now protect against a broader set of online threats by analyzing the complete URL string or address, providing enhanced capabilities to detect current and future exploits. Protection from deceptive URLs masquerading as legitimate brands: Domain Highlighting highlights the top level domain in the address bar, helping users to quickly confirm that the website they are visiting is the site they intended to visit. The domain name is in bold and black font, standing out from other characters in the URL, which are gray. 
SmartScreen® Filter (Available in Beta 2): The SmartScreen Filter helps protect against a broad set of threats—such as phishing attacks that attempt to collect personal information and malicious software, also known as malware. New technologies in Internet Explorer 8 help combat against increasingly targeted and sophisticated attacks, while offering choice and control by letting users or administrators enable or disable this feature when Internet Explorer 8 is run for the first time, or at any subsequent time.
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Internet Explorer 8 includes features and enhancements that give users more control and protection. Enhanced ActiveX Controls: Internet Explorer 8 offers greater control over who can install Microsoft ActiveX controls and on which sites the ActiveX controls are allowed to run. Per-site ActiveX reduces attack surface by providing an “implicit” SiteLock so that controls may only run from their point of installation by default. This tool enables users and administrators to manage where a given ActiveX controls is allowed to run. Per-user ActiveX allows developers to write ActiveX controls that are only installed for a single user and not for all users on the system, providing a level of protection for other users against malicious or badly written controls.
Data Execution Prevention (DEP): In Internet Explorer 8, DEP is on by default for systems running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and can help prevent damage to your computer from viruses and other security threats by preventing certain types of code from writing to executable memory space. DEP will automatically close the browser tab the control is attempting to execute in and terminate the executable. DEP/NX is not a cure-all against all memory-based vulnerabilities. But when combined with other technologies, DEP/NX helps prevent reliable exploitation of common buffer overflow exploits. No additional user interaction is required to provide this protection, and no new prompts are introduced.
| Internet Explorer 8 extends browser protection to web servers, offering increased protections to sites. Cross Domain Request (XDomainRequest): With XDomain Request, developers can securely request public resources from another domain's server so that both parties know which sites are sharing information, facilitating the ability for developers to create cross-site data aggregation scenarios. Cross Document Messaging (XDM): This developer feature enables the sender to guarantee messages are only received by a specified recipient and ensures that each message is tagged with its origin. XSS Filter (Available in Beta 2): Protect against a new and emerging category of attack—one that can lead to information disclosure, compromised account information, and identity theft. The new XSS Filter helps protect both website visitors and website owners from the emerging exploit known as Cross Site Scripting (XSS) by dynamically detecting Type-1 XSS attacks.
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