Hi
it could be read nearly everywhere: Microsoft has launched the next generation of the Internet Explorer, called IE8. It should be work much better than the other releases before, offering some nice features and it should be much safer than all the other releases and competitors at the browser market.
Here my system where I tried to use that new IE:
ASUS M2N-SLI with 8 GB DDR2 RAM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ CPU
MS VISTA Ultimate 64-bit with SP1 and patched completely
I've downloaded the 64-bit, 32-bit- versions for VISTA and the 32-bit version for XP from the Microsoft website.
Installation:
The installation went by without a problem. After a restart the OS did install the new browser in three steps. After I've been logged on and starting IE8, it popped up with a User defined or Express installation. I did choose User defined, which I recommend for everyone (you'll see why later).
Side effect of the installation of the 64-bit release was that the 32-bit version got updated too, without being asked for.
First start-up:
Here are three important requests during the installation, which made me thinking:
You get asked if you want to import all bookmarks and newsfeed of the other installed browsers at your system. It takes a while depending how much huge your bookmark files are... but it didn't import all of them. Few Firefox and Opera booksmark had been missed.
Next question is about your favourite search engine. IE8 can import your fav one but offers its LiveSearch product as primary tool first. It also offers to check for latest updates of search engines (??!)
Finally (after approx. 5 minutes) you're asked if you want IE8 as your default browser. Well that question is rather interesting cause it offers only YES and NO as choises. Nothing to worry about, except the circumstance that you have to click on YES if you want to finish that installation in a usual way, otherwise you can choose BACK or CANCEL !!!!!!!!! I choose YES to see what's going on
First use of a website (here: MVP Website)
I didn't make any changes of the former IE7 settings, still believing IE8 will use them. But I couldn't enter nor choose the link from the saved favourites cause this happened directely after starting:
Click to view attachment
IE8 crashed first and went over into a frozen mood after 5 minutes when trying to access the IE website. After a restart of IE8, I tried it again with the same result. So I tried the unwanted updated 32-bit version (you won't get asked!)
It tried to load the IE start page at Microsoft but crashed like before. This time it was bit more communicative giving me this error screen:
Click to view attachment
After a restart of IE8 32-bit and emptying all Temp files and related stuff I could access the MVP start page. But after few seconds:
Click to view attachment
So I decided to remove the IE8 installation after nearly 30 minutes of 'use'. Interesting that the uninstall routine does not get back for the complete settings of my former IE7 settings.
Facit:
I'll wait for more replies and reports about IE8 and about the experiences of other users... and for the first update of IE8
BU