Microsoft’s next Internet Explorer browser is complete, but critics say a test version released this week is full of problems.
The company says the latest version of its internet browsing software, Internet Explorer 8, is a marked improvement on previous versions. Explorer general manager Dean Hachamovitch wrote in a blog post that the final version is should behave as well as the trail version.
“The IE8 product is effectively complete and done,” he said.
But some users are already reporting problems. Replies to the blog have reported problems with rendering tables and print views, and problems with the “tabbed” feature.
“The install of IE8 RCI has been a complete mess,” forum user Steve Webb wrote.
Another controversial part of the new browser is its “Compatibility View”.
Many websites are configured to run with Internet Explorer 7, not version 8, so users must view the sites through a special application built-in to the browser.
“Some of today’s Web pages might expect the old, less interoperable behavior from IE,” Microsoft Explorer program manager Scott Dickens wrote on the blog.
“These Web pages might not function correctly, in ways from just looking a bit misaligned to not working at all.”
Some of these web pages include CNN.com, Facebook, MySpace and BBC.co.uk.
“Despite all the outreach to sites, we saw from telemetry data that that IE8 Beta 2 users still have to use Compatibility View a lot,” Dickens wrote.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
