I began my day with downloading the Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Final Release for X86 XP.

I'd have to say my day was good up until that point.

#1 - I receive an error message every time I open the browser. I'm by no means computer illiterate and I have done everything in my power to resolve there. There are currently some fixes posted that supposedly worked for 50% of the people who tried them on RC1. The fixes were a big no cigar on the final release.

After mangling the settings, I reset to default again and figure I will just ignore the error until more information comes out.

#2 - I don't know how they can claim this browser is 50% faster than any on the market. Seems sub-par to me. It is a vast improvement over IE7 in the eye of speed...but nowhere near beating the industry by a 50% margin.

#3 - I opened 6 tabs and checked the memory usage..... 298.34MB!!!! This is just having a few tabs open on techspot.

#4 - The only good thing is you can uninstall and revert back to IE7. Good stuff.

Also I'm not a fanboy of a certain browser. I use IE7, Firefox, and Chrome. Browsers are always evolving and changes will always be made. But in my honest opinion, IE8 is exactly like Vista. WHY WHY WHY is it programmed the way it is? How long will it be before this is pushed to us as a "Critical Update"?

Avoid avoid avoid avoid

Using Firefox at the moment. Seems to work just fine.

Spyder_1386

I use Firefox primarily. Installed IE8 on my workhorse Vista 32 computer. No issues whatsoever either with installation or with running it afterward. Not sure about 50% faster, did not have enough time to play with it.

The MS newsgroups/forums are acting funny. I would assume because there are many people trying to post.

The error may be due to the script blocking mechanism in Kaspersky that is running. I'll have to play around with it a little bit to see what happens.

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Update:

Ran the install on my main PC and it went without a hitch. No startup error messages.
- The other PC that had issues before is still having the same issue... Odd.

Thanks for the warning.

Even if immediate problems are fixed, there’s no hurry to change over to IE8. It’s never a good idea to be among the first to try a new product, even if it is a final version. This is particularly true of M$ products.

First, wait until the inevitably countless problems have been reported and fixed, until numerous critical patches have been applied, until experts have learned enough about it to provide support, until their boards are not flooded with irate posters, until its advantages/disadvantages become clear, until…, until…

And then, after all that is over, carry on using Firefox and leave the IE alone!

Hmmm Yes that post would have been useful.

I hate IE7 so much that I figured that IE8 couldn't be much worse.

Other than the memory usage. It's OK.

Still last on my list for usage.