What New in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Gold?

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Have you upgraded your Internet Explorer to the latest 8.0 Gold. It is available now without the BETA. If you have not, take a minute to see what is installed on IE8. This is NOT a review but my experience on upgrading IE7 to IE8. But I must say that IE8 is really FAST! I tested with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and of course IE8. Results after the break.

ie8

The installation is quite easy but you will need to restart your computer a few time. For me, two times to update the Windows with IE8 patches.

The first time you start your Internet Explorer 8.0, you will need to customize it as shown in the following pictures.

  • Step 1 – Setup

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  • Step 2 – Turn on Suggested Sites. I turned it on since this is one of the features in IE8.

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  • Step 3 – Select how you want IE8 to behave. By selecting Express, you will get all the products by Microsoft. I chose Custom Settings.  🙂 However, if you select Express, you can stop at Step 3.

ie8_3

  • Step 4 – Cutsomization of the settings. More options. I chose “show me a webpage… “, the second option.

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  • Step 5 -I chose Yes to download updates.

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  • Step 6 -Again, I chose “show me a webpage..” for selecting the Accelerators.

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  • Step 7 -This SmartScreen Filter is also another new feature in IE8. Of course, I turned it on.

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  • Step 8 -Mozilla Firefox is still my favorite. I chose NO.

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  • Step 9 – This is also something new for IE8. I chose to turn on Compatibility Settings updates.

ie8_9

  • Step 10 – Actually, the settings completed at Step 9. However, I have requested to have webpage to allow me to have more options. So, I was given a few choices to select my Accelerator for Blog (I chose Blogger), Email (I chose Gmail), Map (I chose Google Maps) and finally, Translator (I chose Google Translate). The below shows my selections. BTW, I have my reasons for choosing Google (more than Microsoft) as I have more things related to Google than Microsoft. That is my preferences. (I think Google Maps excels Microsoft Map in many ways).
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ie8_10

ie8_11

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As mentioned earlier, I was told to update my IE8 and Windows Vista. In the new IE8, go to Tools and you can see Windows Update. Click it to update your Windows. Below is a screen shot of what was installed after upgrading from IE7 to IE8.

ie8_14

Internet Browser Test Results

I did a simple (no brainer) test on start time on my 3 Internet Browsers, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 on my Vista Ultimate desktop. I set all startup to default blank page.

These are roughly the timings (after more than 5 times testing on each browsers). These are just reference results and I guess it will vary depending on how many plugins you have installed and etc.

Google Chrome 2.0 Beta: 1.1 seconds

Internet Explorer 8.0: 2.2 seconds

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.7: 2.7 seconds

Remarks

I was quite impressed by IE8 results. However, it is too early to comment. Overall, I think upgrading to IE8 is easy if you are not fussy like me (choosing customization will need you to do a few more steps). More testing by the rest of the world is needed to see if IE8 lives up to its expectation (web safety) although Engadget has reported that IE8 was easily exploited on Day 1 of Pwn2Own.

What is your experiences (good or bad) on Internet Explorer 8.0?

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