IE8 Beta ... Less usable than IE7

Dani 0 322 Views

Well, it looks like the latest installment of Microsoft's browser, IE8, is now in beta status. While I'm not daring enough to give it a go myself, word on the street is that, while Microsoft boasts it passes the ACID2 test, it renders most sites rather awkwardly, to the point of being unusable for regular web browsing. (It leaves a sour taste when you consider that their main push is adhering to standards and compliancy.) To add insult to injury, while MS is off boasting that IE8 is CSS2 compliant, they seem to ignore the fact that the ACID3 test is out and browsers such as Firefox and Safari have had CSS3-capable stable versions for months.

Dani AI

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Quick practical notes for anyone trying the IE8 beta: treat it as pre-release software and test it on a spare machine or in a VM rather than replacing your main browser. Several posters here have seen layout oddities and at least one crash; the steps below help isolate whether the problem is the browser itself, an add-on, or the site expecting an older IE mode. (superuser.com)

If IE crashes or hangs, start it without add-ons to rule out BHOs/toolbars: run Internet Explorer (No Add-ons) from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools, or launch with the command below. If that fixes it, re-enable add-ons one at a time from Manage Add-ons to find the culprit. For sites that look broken but do not crash, try Compatibility View (Tools > Compatibility View Settings) — that forces IE to behave like the previous major version and often fixes layout problems. (learn.microsoft.com)

If you maintain the site: confirm a valid DOCTYPE (standards mode), then control IE’s document mode explicitly with the X-UA-Compatible header or meta tag. Put the meta tag very early in the HEAD (only TITLE and other META tags should come before it) so IE honors it, for example: 

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

or use IE=edge to request the latest supported mode. Use the F12 Developer Tools to check the page’s Browser Mode and Document Mode and to reproduce the issue by switching modes. These tools show what mode IE chose and let you test fixes without changing the page source. (learn.microsoft.com)

Summary: for casual browsing don’t rely on a beta; if testing a site, use the meta/header switches plus F12 to pin down the rendering mode, and isolate crashes with No‑Addons mode. If broader testing is needed, use Microsoft’s provided IE virtual machines so problems can be reproduced in a clean, disposable environment. (superuser.com)

Member Avatar for ScudRunner50
ScudRunner50 4 Junior Poster in Training

I downloaded it this morning and started playing around. Crashed within 5 minutes when I tried to go to newegg.com after seeing that daniweb renders odd

Member Avatar for jwenting
jwenting 1,905 duckman

Oh wow, a beta that's not stable and not fully functional. I'm shocked, shocked I say, that Davey didn't go to greater lengths to state how EVIL Microsoft is because of that.

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