The appearance is quite similar to IE 7 … from my understanding the major changes are not in the looks but the code and security under the hood. Here is a look at the IE 8 Beta 1 default user interface. There is also still a field to create your own as well.Īnd here is the list of Activity Providers to add to IE 8. Ok … since I wanted to see additional search sites IE 8 popped up the options page which include the usual Web Search engines and a list of various Topic Search sites. If it blocks any legitimate sites you can always add it to Trusted Sites. It appears the initial set up is complete … I will leave the safety monitor on which is enabled by default. Next … again as I am curious as to what IE 8 will offer I am selecting to choose a list of activity providers versus the standards. Well, Google is currently set up as my current provider, but since this is a review I want to check out what IE 8 is going to offer so I chose a list of other providers. On the next screen I am asked about a search provider.

I never let Microsoft choose my settings so I am selecting to choose them myself. Success! Oh … but wait … Another Reboot! Microsoft sure knows how to show me their WOW!Īfter the Restart it looks like I am finally ready to configure IE 8. Ok, after the restart I get to start the installation process all over AGAIN. The machine I am on now is a single core CPU and I already disabled the language bar … but thanks for having my back MS!!!Īfter all of the validation and downloading the update I get to do another restart! Whooohooo! Well, I had to start the install process all over again just so Microsoft could point me to the wonderful Validation Required page! This update indicates an issue where the language bar crashes on multi-core machines.

Tools Internet Options Programs Make Default. Which is easy enough but unnecessary in my opinion. So, I launched IE 7 and made it my default browser. Uh Oh! If you have Firefox set as your default browser (which I encourage most users to do) IE 8 doesn’t like it! Ok … perhaps installation is not as straight forward as I anticipated. Well … I can always remove what I don’t like so … I will continue on.

I tried to uncheck the Install updates box and Microsoft insists on protecting myself from myself. Of course Microsoft makes you update various updates just to install IE 8 even though you may not want to install them. The UI for installation looks exactly like IE 7 which should be familiar. I thought installation would be pretty straight forward.

Download internet explorer 8 for mac