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Product: Windows 7
Company: Microsoft
Website: http://www.microsoft.com
MSRP:
See Pricing  Purchase at Amazon.com
Review By: Andre Da Costa

with Byron Hinson, Robert Stein & Fernando Fhualpa contributing

IE 8 - Developer, compatibility,  & Security

Table Of Contents (70 Pages)
1: Introduction & Executive Summary
2: Pricing, Editions & System
Requirements
3:
Installation, Setup & Upgrading
4: Initial Impressions
5: Daily Usage
6: Connectivity & Networking
7: Windows Internet Explorer 8
8: IE 8 - Developer, Compatibility & Security
9: Accessories (Search, Applets, etc.)

10: Windows Media Player 12 & Media Center
11: Enterprise & Security Improvements
12: Windows Virtual XP Mode
13: Device Stage & Printing
14: Remote Assistance - Easy Connect
15: Customizing Windows 7
16: Maintenance & Power Management
17: Gaming & Desktop Graphics Performance
18: USB Transfer Tests

19: Desktop & Personalization
20: Support Tools
21: System Restore & Recovery Options
22: Tablet PC & Windows Touch
23: Windows Update & Other Enhancements
24: Windows 7 Developer Support
25: Competition
26: Conclusion & Online Resources

Microsoft has not forgotten about improved performance and compatibility. The browser definitely feels snappier, using IE 8 on a mobile phone connection web pages load respectably faster, it seems like some significant changes have been made to the caching engine itself. The IE 8 Team have noted that considerable improvements have been made to the HTML parse, CSS engine, Jscript runtime and the associated garbage collector. Version 8 offers a compatibility layer, so that sites designed for an older version of the browser will continue functioning as normal. Common problems you might see if a website is not updated to support the latest features in the browser include, out of place menus, images, or text. An integrated contextual compatibility button built into the address bar appears next to the Refresh and Stop button whenever compatibility issues are detected, when clicked it refreshes the website and presents it in its original state as if you were browsing in a supported version of the browser, nice! What I notice when you do enable Compatibility mode is, you lose access to some of the new features of the browser.

Performance

To really gauge its performance I believe I have the perfect setup, my Motorola 350 cellular phone which I use as a dial up modem. To be honest, you are not gonna notice any major difference between the browsers speed if you are running on a DSL connection since pages just load instantly. With the dial up configuration I was able to see some nuances and indicators that proved which browser and which version definitely is faster when it comes to surfing.

Dial up

 

 

Internet Explorer 8

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.12

NeoWin.net

1 min 17 secs

44 seconds

MSN.com

2 mins 50 secs (NA)

2 mins 53 secs

Yahoo.com

40 seconds

1 min  05 secs

OSNews.com

53 seconds

20 seconds

Arstechnica.com

40 seconds

40 seconds

Twitter.com

35 seconds

44 seconds

Microsoft.com

1 min 39 secs

1 min 48 secs

YouTube.com

57 seconds

1 min 24 secs

Google.com

25 seconds

6 seconds

My Blog – Live Spaces

2 mins 15 seconds

1 min 15 secs

CNET News

45 seconds

36 seconds

eWeek

3 mins (NA)

40 seconds

ZDNET Blog

40 seconds

59 seconds

Microsoft-Watch.com

40 seconds

14 seconds

Macworld.com

1 min 12 secs

1 min 36 secs

NA – Website did not load in a reasonable amount of time to be considered acceptable.
My Blog – Live Spaces – http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
Connection – GPRS
ISP – LIME (formerly Cable & Wireless)
Speed – 5 KBs per second

 

Broadband

 

Internet Explorer 8

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.7

NeoWin.net

7 seconds

7 seconds

MSN.com

5 seconds

6 seconds

Yahoo.com

4 seconds

5 seconds

OSNews.com

4 seconds

4 seconds

Arstechnica.com

10 seconds

3 seconds

Twitter.com

12 seconds

6 seconds

Microsoft.com

7 seconds

5 seconds

YouTube.com

5 seconds

4 seconds

Google.com

2 seconds

1 second

My Blog – Live Spaces

1 second

1 second

CNET News

3 seconds

3 seconds

eWeek

4 seconds

4 seconds

Microsoft-Watch.com

5 seconds

10 seconds

Macworld.com

1 min seconds

1 min 12 seconds

Connection – Cable
ISP – Comcast
Speed – 1.5 MBs per second

As you can see in the above table, performance is negligible; this also indicates that results will always vary depending on your Internet Connection. Internet Explorer 8 has improved performance in some scenarios especially with the proliferation of broadband these days. The majority of users won’t notice a difference in load time for pages, but if you are still using dial up, I will conclude though that Firefox remains faster compared to Internet Explorer 8.

The table features a list of some of the sites I visit daily. Well, given the above indications, IE 8 is not so fast and I have even tried comparing a Firefox 3.0.12 install where web pages are not cached and it still beats IE. What Microsoft does best though is fidelity. I notice when I was trying to load the new Facebook, Firefox loaded it quickly enough, but it would not load properly, while Internet Explorer 8 took its time, but loaded up the web page properly. It’s a weird performance test I know, but this how I prove which is faster. My personal satisfaction really depends on the web paging loading fast enough for me to interact with, not necessarily to load all features of the site immediately.

Security, Reliability and Add On Management

The new InPrivate mode allows users to clear any private information such as cookies, visited web pages and the entire session itself. There is also an improvement to Phishing Filter through Smart Screen which puts greater focus on web pages that try to collect personal information from users; it’s great for preventing scamming sites that utilize URLs such as PayPal or known banking merchants. This is done through a black list of known or suspected phishing sites so it’s an ongoing game of cat and mouse, users should still be cautious about how they enter personal information on the web. Internet Explorer 8 ActiveX permissions are more independent allowing users to define how they run depending on the site. Improved reliability (including automated crash recovery and tab restoration), and enhanced support for accessibility standards. IE 8 has a much cleaner, organized way to manage all your Internet Explorer add-ons in simplified categories. This is one area; I had hoped the IE Team would have also applied to the Internet Explorer 8 Options dialog.

Some things I would have liked:

  • Download Manager - trust me, it needs it, I find it very handy in FireFox and Safari - Pause/Resume, Manage.

  • Non-adjacent Selection of text on web pages.

  • Customizable toolbar, I personally wouldn't mind if buttons such as Home, Feeds, Print, Page, Tools and Help were on a another toolbar group such as the Address bar group, I need more real estate for Tab's that's much cleaner. The new Favourites Bar in particular eats up a lot of space.

  • List View layout for Options, similar to Office 2007 Options dialog. Also make the Advance settings a part of the list view Options, this includes: Accessibility, Browsing, International, Multimedia.

  • Make Print Preview utilize a Tab instead of opening a separate window.

  • Close button Tabs like Firefox.

Internet Explorer 8 is an excellent update, the focus on improving the browsing experience, relevancy and synergy with Windows Live services, developer productivity and easing compatibility in addition to the features that focus on making the browsing experience more secure, personal and not intrusive will surely give users reason to stick with the platform and might even bring some users over from Firefox which I personally have had problems with in the memory resource department.

 

 « Windows Internet Explorer 8 Accessories (Search, Applets, etc.) »

 

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