On April 9, 2019, Microsoft released the final IE8 update for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, the last supported version of Windows based on Windows XP, marking the end of IE8 support on all platforms. For versions of Windows in which IE8 was the final version of Internet Explorer available, support ended alongside the end of support for that version of Windows. Support for IE8 on most supported Windows versions ended on January 12, 2016, when Microsoft began requiring customers to use the latest version of Internet Explorer available for each Windows version. Support for Internet Explorer 8 is bound to the lifecycle of the Windows version it is installed on as it is considered an OS component, thus it is unsupported on Windows XP due to the end of extended support on April 8, 2014.
It is the last version of Internet Explorer to support Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional 圆4 Edition, the 圆4 versions of Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista before SP2, and Windows Server 2008 before SP2 as the following version, Internet Explorer 9, will only support on Windows Vista SP2 or later and Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later. Internet Explorer 8 requires Windows XP SP2-3, Windows XP Professional 圆4 Edition SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2, or Windows Vista at the minimum. According to Microsoft, security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, CSS, and Ajax support were its priorities for IE8. Additionally, it introduced a compatibility mode to optionally emulate older versions' rendering behaviour, and colour-coded tab groups where links opened in new tabs share the colour of which they originated from. Internet Explorer 8 is the first version of IE to pass the Acid2 test, and the last of the major browsers to do so (In the later Acid3 Test, it only scores 24/100.).
It was the default browser in Windows 7 (later default was Internet Explorer 11) and Windows Server 2008 R2 and can replace previous versions of Internet Explorer on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 but unlike version 7, this version does not support Windows Server 2003 SP1 or an earlier version. It was released by Microsoft on March 19, 2009, as the eighth version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 7.
Windows Internet Explorer 8 ( IE8) is a web browser for Windows.
On the down side, a lack of a download manager is definitely felt and is an essential update needed for the next release.Įven though its core-performance still lags slightly behind Chrome and Firefox, this is the fastest, most secure version of Internet Explorer yet and Microsoft’s offering still outranks it’s competition in terms of security and backwards compatibility. The new address bar finally catches up to the competition with solid, reliable auto-complete functionality InPrivate Browsing lets you surf the web without logging your activity in your browser history, while InPrivate Filtering goes a step further and keeps third-party sites from accessing your history as well. While new features such as Accelerators and Webslices are a welcome addition to the browsing experience, it’s the less obvious changes that deserve the most attention. Pros: Autocomplete address bar, colour-coded tabs, improved security and performance.Ĭons: No download manager, windows-only, slow JavaScript.Ĭonclusion: The interface might not have changed much since older versions, but when you scratch the surface it’s obvious that Internet Explorer 8 is a big step up from Microsoft’s previous offerings. Colour-coded tabs, a new and improved address bar and inPrivate help make this the best version of Internet Explorer yet. For those wanting to keep on top of things, Webslices allow the user to highlight areas of sites that they’d like to be updated on, for examples, auctions or news posts.
Accelerators provide in-page services with a single click, letting you highlight text and effortlessly perform a series of web actions such as searching, map creation or blogging. Internet Explorer 8 comes with a range of new features gives the user new and interesting ways to browse online. Internet Explorer 8 marks a huge leap forward for Microsoft, closing the gap between them and their competitors with a safer, more stable and customizable browser.