Hands-on With Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 Beta.
Here at JVF Consulting we are fiends for the latest in technology and software. Staying up to date with the most current versions of web browsers is a necessity for us, especially since we deal first hand with creating websites to work with these browsers. When Microsoft Corp. released the Beta version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) we were anxious to download it and give it a spin.
Upon installation everything seemed new and interesting. During the installation it wasn't really an install, it was more like an upgrade was in progress. The install went smooth, even though it did take about 5 minutes overall.
After patiently waiting for a reboot we launched the new Internet Explorer 8. Hoping to see a new look or interface we were let down. There were some small differences and features which left us scratching our head, but we moved on to why we really installed this browser. Our main goal was to test the websites we have built to ensure they will all work and look properly. At first glimpse we did not notice anything major, that is until we tried to log into our JVF Amass Content Management System (CMS). As you can see in the screenshots below we ran into a roadblock right off the bat. In Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) you can see that our username and password fields are centered on the login page.

Now check this out, in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) our username and password fields are justified to the left. All of this is because IE8 can't center align a TD tag! Aligning a table column or a cell is some of the most basic html there is, IE8 fails at this miserably! After this bug we no longer had any faith in this new web browser and had to cease all further testing. This was not only a waste of time but another kick in the butt as to why Mozilla Firefox continues to lead the pack with their web browser.

Thankfully the uninstall was successful and IE7 is now running correctly on the machine we used. After reading other horror stories about IE8 we came across a warning put out by Microsoft Corp. This warning notifies users that if you're running SP3 on your machine installing IE8 may be permanent since uninstalls of the software were unsuccessful by many customers. You can find the article titled "Microsoft warns of IE8 lock-in with XP SP3" in the computerworld website.