Updated News on Internet Explorer 8

Today we’re getting you caught up on some of the changes in the Internet Explorer world.  The IE Product team has been posting a lot of information about IE8 recently – here are some of the key posts:

• IE8 Blocker Toolkit Available: IE8 will be distributed via Automatic Update (AU), Windows Update (WU) and Microsoft Update (MU).  However, in  a corporate IT environment, rigorous compatibility testing of new browser versions with internal applications and websites is required before deploying the new version.  The IE8 Blocker Toolkit can be used to prevent users from installing IE8 before the compatibility testing is completed.
• The Internet Explorer 8 User-Agent String (Updated Edition): Back when we supported Internet Explorer on the Performance team, we wrote a post on the IE User-Agent String.  Internet Explorer 8 sends an updated User-Agent string when interacting with web servers.  With the introduction of the Compatibility View settings, and the release of the Windows 7 Beta there are some changes to be aware of with respect to the User-Agent strings.
• IE8 in Windows 7 Beta: Windows 7 Beta includes a pre-release candidate build of Internet Explorer.  This build of IE includes features that are unique to Windows 7 as well as fixes based on the feedback from IE8 Beta 2 users
• New Accessibility Features in IE8: There has been some major work done with regards to accessibility with IE8.  Caret Browsing, Find on Page, Adaptive Zoom, High DPI, and also platform features (support for ARIA, support for IAccessibleEx, and support for additional WinEvents) will greatly improve the Accessibility of the browser.
• Responding to Change: Updated Getter/Setter Syntax in IE8 RC 1:  The getter/setter implementation in IE8 has been changed to follow the draft ECMAScript 3.1 standard.

Finally, the Internet Explorer team will be having their first Expert Zone chat  of 2009 this Thursday, January 22^nd at 10.00 PST/18.00 UTC. These chats are a great opportunity to have your questions answered by members of the IE product team.

Until next time …

- CC Hameed

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