Using Internet Explorer 8

Historically, Microsoft has introduced a major update to Internet Explorer with each new version of Windows. That tradition continues with Windows 7, which uses Internet Explorer 8 as its default program for browsing webpages and displaying HTML-formatted content. Microsoft officially released Internet Explorer 8 in March 2009 and made it available for installation on Windows XP and Windows Vista. If you previously upgraded to Internet Explorer 8 with either of those earlier Windows versions, you're no doubt already familiar with its features, which fall neatly into the following three categories:

• Security In Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced the concept of Protected Mode browsing, which provides a layer of protection from potentially hostile webpages, scripts, and downloads. That architecture is present in Windows 7 as well, along with a host of new security features such as a SmartScreen filter that blocks known sources of dangerous code.
• Usability Tabbed browsing made its debut in Internet Explorer 7 and is significantly more usable in Internet Explorer 8-new tabs you open from an existing tab, for example, are color coded so that you can see these groups at a glance. You can also enhance basic browsing capabilities with add-ons called accelerators, which in some cases eliminate the need to leave the current page to perform a useful task. A few of these nifty tools are included by default; the Translate With Live Search accelerator, which automatically translates the selected text into the language of your choice (in this case, from English to German).
• Compatibility Over the years, Internet Explorer has earned its share of brickbats from web designers, who complained that it ignores web standards and requires custom code to handle its many design and layout quirks. That's all changed in Internet Explorer 8, which adheres so closely to modern web standards that it actually has problems properly displaying pages that were tweaked to display properly in Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. To deal with these compatibility issues, Internet Explorer 8 includes a variety of compatibility tools, such as the Compatibility View button that appears in the address bar on any page that hasn't been specifically identified as compatible with Internet Explorer 8. We explain why formatting glitches occur and list the full range of solutions in "Using Compatibility View" on page 194.