March, 2008

We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously. Why Change? Microsoft recently published a set of Interoperability Principles . Thinking about IE8’s behavior with these principles in mind, interpreting web content in the most standards compliant way possible is a better thing to do. We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8’s default is a...

It’s exciting when we have a new beta to release! The launch of IE8 developer beta is a huge milestone, and we have set up various mechanisms to collect feedback. Before I list out all of our feedback channels for IE8 betas, I want to explain what we learned from our experience with IE7 feedback. We were thrilled but a little overwhelmed by the amount of input we got in IE7. Frankly, we couldn’t keep up and really do a good job handling the free-form bug entries. So we want to try something new...

Dean mentioned a bunch of things we are doing in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers . I want to point you to more details specifically about the developer focused changes to CSS, the DOM and the new version targeting. Standards support (CSS/HTML) IE8 improves rendering of content authored to various web standards in standards mode. As we have mentioned before, IE8 Beta 1 for Developers ships with standards mode as its default formatting engine. In order to maintain backwards compatibility...

This morning at the MIX conference in Las Vegas, the IE team made eight announcements about IE8. The most interesting for many people is that a developer beta is now available. Download it here . The rest of our talks and demos focused on seven other areas that appeal to developers: Our goal is to deliver complete, full CSS 2.1 support in the final IE8 product. IE8 Beta 1 for developers delivers better interoperability with other major browsers, addressing major pain points (e.g. floats...

With Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers now out in the wild, we have received a good deal of positive feedback regarding our plans for CSS. The feedback includes the need for the specifics around CSS support for IE8 Standards Mode for both the current Beta and what is projected for the final release. This information allows you, the developer community, to test your sites and give quality feedback for features that are actually implemented in the current beta release. These details are posted...

Hey everyone, Christopher here. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything here (over a year in fact). While my role in IE7 was focused on security community outreach , for IE8 I’m focused on increasing security, and delivering great end-user features. The first of which we gave some love to is the Address bar. Domain Highlighting At a glance, the most visible change with IE8 is Domain Highlighting. Internet Explorer 8 will automatically highlight what it considers to be the owning domain...

Although we said that IE8 Beta 1 passes the ACID2 test , some of you may be seeing results like the image above; we thought we should explain what’s going on. IE8 passes the official ACID2 test hosted on http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html . (Note, this seems to be a popular destination at the moment. You may have trouble reaching the site.)There are also a number of copies of this test around the net. One popular copy that I’ve seen of late is http://acid2.acidtests.org/ IE8 fails...

One of our goals with Internet Explorer 8 was to improve the experience of managing add-ons by bringing more types of add-ons into the management experience, and to make that experience more usable. Originally introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, we’ve updated the management UI in a big way for IE8. Here’s a screen shot of the new UI: A familiar interface… When you look at the Manage Add-ons UI, you’ll probably feel comfortable with it quickly – it looks a lot like a Windows File...

If you’re like me, you’ve found that it’s pretty hard to keep track of all the new services and sites out there, let alone the ones we use every day. I bookmark my favorite sites and services, but still spend a lot of time trying to find them. A couple of months ago, a friend showed me a service that finds related videos. I ran across a blog that showed a funny video on chinchillas and wanted to see similar videos. I spent 5 minutes looking for the service in my Favorites. When...

Hi, my name is Helen, I am a Program Manager on the User Experience team of Internet Explorer, and I’m happy to introduce the IE8 Favorites bar! New Functionality on the Favorites bar : The Favorites bar, previously known as the Links toolbar, has been updated with great new functionality that helps you get information from your favorite websites quickly and easily. The new IE8 Favorites bar still has your favorite links just one click away, but also allows you to add WebSlices (new feature...

Over the past year, I’ve written about different tools to help web developers become more productive when developing in Internet Explorer. These tools came from partners inside and outside Microsoft. One – the IE Developer Toolbar – came from the IE team in response to your requests for a free, lightweight tool to help debug your site in IE. The IE8 Developer Tools are the next step in helping make developers more productive in Internet Explorer. In this post I’ll introduce you to what’s available...

Hi! I am Saloni Mira Rai, a program manager on the Layout team, and I’d like to walk you through the changes in Zoom for Internet Explorer 8. Zoom lets you enlarge or reduce the view of a web page to improve readability. The feature is particularly useful on really large and really small displays, allowing for scaling of content while maintaining the intended layout of the page. The second iteration of the zoom feature (first shipped in Internet Explorer 7) focuses on improving the existing experience...

Hi, my name is Andy Zeigler, and I’m a Program Manager on the Internet Explorer Foundations team. I’d like to tell you about a new IE8 feature called Loosely-Coupled IE, or LCIE for short. Essentially, LCIE is a collection of internal architecture changes to Internet Explorer that improve the reliability, performance, and scalability of the browser. It also paves the way for future improvements in other areas, including security and usability. To do this, we’ve isolated the browser frame and...

Hi, My name is Jane Maliouta and I’m the program manager for IE8 Deployment and Management. When you install Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 there are a few important things to do before you start. First, I recommend you review the system requirements to make sure IE8 is supported on your computer. Second, take a look at the IE8 Release notes to find known issues and workarounds, so you’ll know what to expect during installation. Third, if the installation fails, we have a knowledge base article...

Since I joined the IE team at the beginning of 2007, it has become clear to me how important it is for web developers to predict how a given browser will work. I’ve certainly heard and read how very important it is to web developers to minimize the cost of supporting each additional browser version. In apparent contradiction to this, everyone needs continued innovation in the browser to create new online business opportunities. One of the most important ways to ease development costs is to support...

For the Internet Explorer 8 Beta, we’ve added an Emulate IE7 button to the command bar. It will help you with everyday browsing and with quickly checking your site as you work on it. Everyday Browsing If you’re having trouble on a site that you’d like to browse, try the Emulate IE7 button. This causes IE8 to use the IE7 user agent string , version vector and layout modes . Also, we’re interested in webpage problems so report them using the IE8 Beta Feedback tools. Developer configurations...

During my talk at MIX 08, I covered more background and detail behind the new IE8 layout mode that provides greater standards support, particularly with regards to CSS 2.1, and version targeting . I’d like to follow-up that talk with a brief post on both points for those that were unable to attend in person. Clearly there is a lot of momentum behind pushing the web forward (as evidenced, in part, by the lively dialog on this and other blog sites around the web). To this end, we’ve invested in...

Note: The feature control key and mode information in this post is now outdated. Please refer to the updated post on this topic: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/03/10/more-ie8-extensibility-improvements.aspx Many commonly used applications and Windows system components depend on the MSIE WebBrowser control to render webpages from within their program. Unlike live sites, pages loaded within these controls are typically static resources stored in libraries and executables on a system. While...

MIX08 kicks off in Vegas tomorrow! We’ve got a few sessions lined up and the event opens this year with IE General Manager, Dean Hachamovitch, being among the keynote speakers. For those unable to attend, you can follow along at home by keeping an eye on the MIX08 website . The keynote will be streamed live, and the rest of the content will be updated throughout the conference with videos from the sessions, photos, and more. Check out the site and follow along! Jefferson Fletcher Product...

After a successful run with the IE7 beta, we’re bringing back our monthly online Expert Zone Chats with members of the IE team. The first is this Thursday, March 20 th at 10:00 PDT/17:00 UTC. These chats are a great opportunity to have your questions answered and hear from members of the IE product team. In case you miss the chat, a transcript will be published afterward and available online. As we saw with the IE7 beta, these chats are a lot of fun and we hope you can join us online. Kristen...

Some of the first things users may notice in the Beta 1 release of Internet Explorer 8 are new features such as Activities and WebSlice. We recognize that the technology behind Activities and Webslice relies on innovations that have come out of the community, which of course has had a critical role in the development of the Internet. We also appreciate the community’s deep commitment to permissive IP licensing and to ensuring the continued ability to innovate. So with these new features and other...

As Dean mentioned yesterday in his post announcing the availability of the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for developers , better script performance is of particular interest to the developer community. In conjunction with Dean’s announcement, the JScript Team posted additional information around scripting improvements in IE8 Beta 1 over on their team blog . I encourage you to check it out and follow their blog to learn more about the cool things they are doing for IE8! Kristen Kibble Program Manger