Internet Explorer 8 (final) is out

cdd · Thu 19 Mar, 2009 16.51

Gosh it's rather good, I'd held back installing the beta again having just formatted but the release version is brill. Lightning fast and the tab sluggishenss nonsense is fixed too which is good. I love the X button on toolbars, bet it won't be long before some stupid helper application reenables the toolbar on every startup though, just the sort of thing google et al get up to.

Nini · Fri 20 Mar, 2009 17.26

Well kinda 'cept with IE it'd probably take out the rest of the system with it in a blue fireball of death.

iSon · Fri 20 Mar, 2009 17.52

Utter cack - I've just installed on my dad's XP laptop and it couldn't have been worse. It's slow, lags behind any other browser I've used and won't stop moaning about add on's even after I've disabled them. This site is also giving it a lot to think about so I think I will be uninstalling it and going back to version 7 for my dad's sake!

Dr Lobster* · Fri 20 Mar, 2009 19.45

cdd wrote:Gosh it's rather good, I'd held back installing the beta again having just formatted but the release version is brill. Lightning fast and the tab sluggishenss nonsense is fixed too which is good. I love the X button on toolbars, bet it won't be long before some stupid helper application reenables the toolbar on every startup though, just the sort of thing google et al get up to.

i can't say that i agree. i can't see anything in this browser that gets me excited - i've tried it with a few sites and it seems that many fail to work correctly without the compatibility button pressed, the interface tweaks are fairly non-existent really and hardly make browsing a better experience.

now, this browser has been in the works for over a year, microsoft themselves employ, what? 90,000 people?

is this the best they can do? if it takes microsoft this long to roll out a handful of html and css enhancements (it's hardly worth mentioning the interface tweaks) it confirms to me a long standing suspicion that the backend rendering engine code must me pretty unmanageable - badly designed internals has to be the reason why it's just so bloody sluggish. it's not a patch on chrome or firefox.

cdd · Fri 20 Mar, 2009 22.48

Perhaps it's because you're using it on Windows XP - when IE is designed for Vista and Seven more.

Also - endless stupid browser helper objects like installing themselves in IE. It might be worth your while turning off various addons.

Pete · Fri 20 Mar, 2009 23.55

i tried using it earlier today to read the BBC News site. I'm on vista with no add ons whatsoever. I couldn't stand it, how the hell it took 4 seconds to respond to opening each tab when firefox does it instantly is beyond me.

The thing is utter shit, it's less shit than the last pile of shit they brought out, but still shit. Every problem bar one I've had on metro code wise has been IE related. It's junk.

rts · Wed 01 Apr, 2009 19.27

Not us of course, but do people still use IE6? I'm working on a Wordpress based website which is working fine in majority of browsers, but the sidebar is squewiff in IE6.

I'm debating whether to spend hours rearching the problem, or just leave it.

Or, if really evil, do this. *giggles*

Nick Harvey · Wed 01 Apr, 2009 19.34

Most of the NHS is still on IE6 due to their amazing Choose & Book system not being compatible with IE7.

marksi · Wed 01 Apr, 2009 19.43

All BBC PCs are still IE6. Fab, isn't it?

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Wed 01 Apr, 2009 21.52

Surprise, surprise, itv is still IE6 too.

Netizen · Thu 02 Apr, 2009 22.43

If your IE8 is running slow and you have Spybot installed, try de-immunizing and disabling the SDHelper wotsit, as there's some sort of conflict with them. I did this on both an XP and a Vista pc and it works a treat.